Just had a real-world direct flight from KBWI-KLAS on Southwest Airlines 737-700. We were packed near full house for the trip. The flying time was right at 4hrs 55min. With that time, I was (and have been) interested in what SWA uses for cruise in the 700.The pilot stated that SWA cruises the 700 between .77 and .79 mach. Not bad, but nearly 5hrs to get to LAS seemed REALLY long. Guess we had some winds!Just passing along a little FYI!Aaron

I guess the FMC calculated speed for .780 works then, eh? ;) Thanks for sharing that tidbit, always nice to learn something about the real world :-hah

Yeah and SWA does not use VNAV on thier birds! [h4]Best Wishes,Randy J. Smithhttp://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-5/196432/winglets_lg.jpg

>> Yeah and SWA does not use VNAV on thier birds! I wonder how they manage ;)

No VNAV??Are they kidding? Ever since I started to fly aircraft with VNAV capabilities, I have feared getting back to an oldie! Now VNAV is a MUST for me!/ Bj

>No VNAV??>Are they kidding? Ever since I started to fly aircraft with>VNAV capabilities, I have feared getting back to an oldie! Now>VNAV is a MUST for me!>/ Bj

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=104658Read the second post. :-)Graham Burgoyne

I have also read that their jets have the AT disabled. The purpose is safety, according to the article. The airline believes that forcing pilots to manage these aspects of flight manually keeps them far more involved in flying the airplane, and therefore much more aware and alert. Interesting.

Thanks for that link Graham.