I DID IT! :-hahA fair amount of descent planning made a big difference. Switching my mode of descent from LVL CHG to SPEED (and use of V/S) made the rest. It was low and slow for the approach! Hit the Vref spot on and floated gracefully down to a feather soft touchdown at LAX! YAHOO!I can't wait to try it again! It's a truly satisfying feeling to have a near perfect flight. My wife now thinks I'm up to something because I can't stop smiling! ;-)Thank you all for your help. Your experience and knowledge are appreciated. It's back to the skies for more practice!Happy flying to all! John

I normally ask for a ridiculousley low altitude like 2000 from a crz alt of 370. With steep fuel prices I would gather that staying as high as possible as long as "feesable" would save a company $$$ as this too relates to pilot discretion.[h4]Randy J. Smith[/h4]

Hey Randy, nice to hear from u again."I normally ask for a ridiculousley low altitude like 2000 from a crz alt of 370." When I made this statement, I was refering to the Top of Descent that the FMC gives me after Ive made all the speed/alt adjustments in the approach legs of my flightplan. What I ment to say was that at this T.O.D I ask ATC for this "ridiculousley low altitude" because they sometimes give level offs and descend TO s that are not in accordance with the PMDG 737 performance. Everyone here knows just how unrealistic FS Atc is. So this is just my trick around that to avoid comein in too high and too fast. So as far as economics goes I dont think it applies to this case since i normally do the VNAV on, power off, fuel flow at 1.3sumthing per engine Almost always to that "ridiculousley low altitude". where i would get Approach clearance, slow down, contact tower, dump flaps/gear and land. Thanx for pointing that out though.Gideon.

Ah I understand Gideon. You looking forward to the 744?[h4]Randy J. Smith[/h4]

>Check this out Ted,>Firstly I want to say that I wasnt attacking anything u said>If I came off that way plz accept my apology. But check out>what the FARs have to say abut the pilot in command: Im>paraphrasing, He is the final authority as to the operation of>that aircraft. FAR 91.3. Therefore one of your jobs as PIC is>to make sure that the instructions u are getting from atc are>in accordance with the performance of your aircraft. So if>they are telling u to descend 100 n.m. when u need 130 u got>to let them know. Or in our case, ask for a lower altitude. I>normally ask for a ridiculousley low altitude like 2000 from a>crz alt of 370. >> ?????I'm really confused by this one? I never said anything about accusations, nor violating FAR's.