What does CWS do and when would I use it? I have a 737-400 cockpit video and the captain goes through the controls and tells about CMD A/B then points at CWS and says that is control wheel steering, but we rarely use that so i wont go into detail. What would a pilot use it for and how can i get it to work if i needed it in the NG?Brad Zimmer

Hi Brad,I'll give you the lazy answer. ;-)Got to www.smartcockpit.com , choose "Boeing 737" from the left side menu. Down the page you have a section called "Systems" and a subsection and also a link called "Automatic flight". Click on that link and it will bring up a pdf-document which will explain the AFDS pretty well. Section "5. AUTOPILOT CONTROL WHEEL STEERING" will describe what CWS does!Hope it helps,

It is so rarely used by pilots in fact that many airlines elect to have the system and CWS button removed from the glareshield on new aircraft.A large 757 operator in the UK has CWS buttons on it's older (inherited) aircraft but the more recent deliveries (direct orders to the airline) have no CWS function. As such, the pilots have no practical training on it's use and it forms no part of any procedure.

Hi "EGCC",the reason why 757 and 767 operators disencourage their pilots from using CWS is the reason that CWS doesn't have a stall protection in those aircraft. There have been incidents where CWS caused an aircraft to stall and the autopilot kept trimming the aircraft nose up and the pilot flying had to apply a lot of force to regain full control over the aircraft. Note, this is also a reason why you shouldn't use V/S in the 757/767 for climbs.The 737 is different in this regard as it has stall protection in many modes, including CWS and V/S.Anyway, I agree that CWS is hardly used and Lufthansa's SOP doesn't include the use of it. I only saw a captain use it once to avoid traffic (although he could have used hdg sel). In that situation it didn't save a lot of work as he still had to press LNAV to get back on course (all pitch or roll modes are disengaged when CWS P or CWS R is active)You can use it as a lazy-pilot's aid (no trimming required) but then you won't have the FD to help/support you so really not that helpful.Regards,Mark

agreed, a rarely used component. Alaska Airlines, for one, does not include this option in their purchase packages for the NG fleet.

thing is... have you ever seen an aircraft in FS go on CWS?have you not become tired of pressing the button only to find it's just another eye-candy?my 2 euro-cents, it's worth the addition. let's first use it in FS, and who knows, maybe one day we won't be using it as well!:)