Does anybody know what the 3 thumb wheels do on the Boeing 737/757/767 etc do? The thumb wheels have numbers on them, any ideas?

Hi,As far as I've understood it, the thumb weels operate counters and are there for helping the crew to remember certain important numbers i.e. Vref speed, ATC frequencies and such.I may be way off here. But if so I'm sure someone will come and correct me! ;-)Cheers,

Hi Mats,Infact most airlines I think use them to remember the flight # like BA 123 or AA 456 etc. Since most flight#'s are 3-digit I presume they have 3 thumb wheels. I guess for 4 digit #'s it may not be useful ;)Also, it probably is the individual pilot's preference and also whether they use them or not. Mostly used by pilots to fiddle and play around while pax are boarding and they have nothing better to do ;)Cheers,Dinshaw.

Hi, I have actually seen the use of these three digits to be both: On a flight I was on, the captain used the digits to remember the flight number right up to the point where he retrieved the reference speed for the approach when he used the thumb wheels to remember that. I have also seen captains that write the reference speed on the right hand, right above where the thumb meets the hand. His argument was that he would always have the number handy (sorry, bad joke, but this is how he expressed it :-)).Hope this helps,BoazEKCH