I understand when an "A" appears in the IAS box at Take Off it means that the aircraft cannot achieve the called for speed, but the question is why does this happen and how can it be prevented..??I have made many successful flights with the 737-700 series, but now that I have graduated to the 800, 900 series I seem to constantly get the "A" along with series of loud clicking noises, all of which precede fatal loss of power. Vernon Brown

You need to provide us with DETAILS Vernon,1] How are you taking of? TOGA?2] Step by step of what you are doing. Like, I set V2 in the MCP speed window, next I advance the throttle to 40% N1 then press the TOGA button. I then hold V2 + 20 etc etc.. This way we can see what mi8ght be happening.Best Wishes,[h4]Randy J. Smith[/h4]http://www.rawbw.com/~bdoolin/shinault/southparkcartmad.gif[h3]PMDG 747![/h3]Caution! Not a real pilot, but do play one on TV ;-)ASUS KV8 DLX | AMD 3200 64 | 1 GIG PC 3200 DDR | GIGABYTE 5700 ULTRA | ViewSonic VP192b 19" |

Thanks Randy...I am doing the same as I always did with the 700 series, with which after flying about the US for a bit I have now flown from KJFK to Zurich in small segments so I must have been doing something right...Anyway, I have been setting V2 in the MCP window, A/T and FD on; 5% flaps. Unlike you I give full trotle on the joystick until 80 Knots at which point I push the A/T button on the glare shield and pull the joystick throtle all the way down. Rotate when we reach V2, and increase speed to V2 plus around 20Knots as we become airborne. Gear up at 50', A/P on at 1.000', flaps pretty much on schedule. I'm not sure about N1, but I assume it becomes active with the A/T.This is when the trouble starts. I get the prefix "A" in the MCP, but the strange thing is I also get a great clicking-clacking sound as if the aricraft is about to self distruct, followed by the dreaded dive to the smoking hole.Naturally I have tried all kinds of ways to solve this: 10% flaps, 15% flaps, MCP speed up to 240 or down to V2 etc., sometimes I am able to pull it out and save the flight, but this is not the way it should happen at all. It's quite possible that I am missing something in the upgrade from the 500,700 series to the new 800,900 series, but I'll be damned if I can see what... Vernon Brown

How about taking a screenshot of the 2D panel right after thinks go horribly wrong so we can take a look at what you're seeing.J

That is a strange way of taking off. I would think either you throttle up manually or use TOGA, but either way turn on A/T on the ground. Switching A/T doesn't do anything to the speed or throttle until you engage one of the speed options, like SPD on the MCP. Sounds like the throttle is just spooling down the engines because you are closing them and not turning on the AP. The clacking sound could be trim or overspeed, but I don't think your gaining speed, rather losing it. So I guess what we need to know is whether you are losing speed on the tape in the PFD or not?To not use TOGA, I manually throttle up to the green line on the N1 or a little above it. A/T I switch on at the gate or before even entering the runway. Then simply rotate at VR and climb above 1000 AGL following flaps retract, gear up, and other clean up procedures. I then switch to VNAV and LNAV and turn the CMD A for AP engage.

I have seen the mysterious A also. I do not know what the A stands for but in my case it is an indication of excessive rate of climb and angle of attack followed by a stall warning. As this was happening with all types of aircraft in FS2002 I finally traced this to a fault in my joystick.

Are you actually selecting TOGA? You say you are selecting A/T, or is this arming it? Without TOGA or another AP mode selected it sounds like your engines are spooling down.

That's what I posted above. I think he's assuming the A/T arming switch will control the speed, but you have to select a mode on the MCP that ties into speed before that'll happen, or at least use TOGA. I think the clicking is perhaps the trim.

I think the clicking sound is the stall warning.

No TOGA takeoff? Is there any particular reason why you do it without if you do not mind me asking? The A/P works with TOGA on TO and there is part of the problem. The A/T should be armed for takeoff too.Best Wishes,[h4]Randy J. Smith[/h4]http://www.rawbw.com/~bdoolin/shinault/southparkcartmad.gif[h3]PMDG 747![/h3]Caution! Not a real pilot, but do play one on TV ;-)ASUS KV8 DLX | AMD 3200 64 | 1 GIG PC 3200 DDR | GIGABYTE 5700 ULTRA | ViewSonic VP192b 19" |

When 'A' appears in the IAS window it indicates that the speed is set to low 'A ircraft floor', in order to remove the A you need to increase the speed in the IAS. 'A' often appears after landing and may continue to be displayed if you do not reset the speed and autopilot before commencing takeoff again.In order to resolve the problem ensure that before engageing the autopilot/autothrottle you have set the speed in the IAS to at least v2+10kts.Hope this helps.Paul17:10GMT 17/11/04

Thanks, pilots....First of all I owe you all an appology, when I said I pressed the "A/T" button I should have said the "TOGA" button. Sorry about that! Thus said, according to page 16 of the flight manual for the 800, 900 series:(quote)"MCP speed condition symbol underspeed limiting symbol appears when commanded speed can't be reached"(then)"under speed limiting (flashing "A") - minimum speed"IMHO, anyone who understands all or any of the above must write tax legislature for the government! Clearly the speed which I am setting on the MCP is incorrect.Should I set the speed as directed by the FMC? or the speed as directed by the FMC +15 Knots ? I also get a yellow message in thetop of the PFD to wit: "OLN022" whatever that means.As I reported in a previous post none of this happened before I upgraded, then again it might be a manifistation of conflict with FS9.. Vernon BRown

VernonHave you checked that the aircraft is in trim for take off. It is likely that it is trimmed too much nose up. The only way I know to get the aircraft properly trimmed (if someone knows how to do it in the 737NG let us know)is to load the default C172 adjust the trim wheel to the white dash setting, then go back to the 737NG (preferably save or you will need to do this each flight). I assume you use the Load Manager and not have too much fuel keeping the aircraft within its max take off weight.What I do is set V2 speed from FMC onto MCP (adding nothing)set A/T on. Line up set engines at 40% wait for them to stabilise, advance throttles to 80% and engage TOGA. Rotate at V1 and climb out at V2 + 15. Avoid over rotation. Retract flaps/increase speed etc.Hope checking the trim helps.Martin Plain

Martin,You trim the NG with the NUMKEY 1 and NUMKEY 7 which btw are default FS key assignments for stab trim. If you have a spare rocker switch on your yoke/joystick I would higly recommend you to assign those above stab trim keys to your rocker switch.Hope it helps,

MatsThanks for the info.Martin