Hi I use a force feedback joystick and FS Force but upon landing it is very difficult to appreciate the forces on the aircraft at touch down. I regularly fly the NG737 for CPA virtual and all flight data is logged with FS Tracker. Sometimes landings are a bit bumpy others are what I would call 'good to very good'. My question is what would be the normal vertical landing speed of a typical B737, B757, B767 and B747 in - ft/min. The ACARS program records my typical landing at Vapp 134 of about -230ft/min.ThanksMike EGGP

I think that -230ft/min is a tiny bit high. Although I may be talking a lot of rubbish, I would aim for -100ft/min at touchdown.Any offers, please correct me!!David Winters

the way i do it is to let the fmc calculate VREF and then land according to that... smooth every time thus far!

Hey Mike,After a long time of struggling to correctly gauge my landings, I ran across the following tidbit that helped immensly. During approach, focus your vision on the large square visual references that are 1000 feet down the runway. At 50-60 feet, transition your sight reference to the far end of the runway and start to pick the nose up for flare. I usually start to pull the throttles to idle around the 30 foot callout.Watching the far end of the runway gives you a much better judge of vertical speed than just staying locked onto those reference points.Hope this helps!Jeff

Just a couple points to add to Jeff's:At touchdown, I would aim for NEAR ZERO rate of descent. The glideslope for a 737 going 140 kts on final is approximately 450 feet/sec descent. The flare should begin 50 feet above the field. Power should be pulled back to 30 feet, but be aware of the conditions and change that to adjust arriving at NEAR ZERO rate of descent at touchdown. The aircraft will slow down considerably below VREF at the FLARE. This is OK as long as you are only a few feet away from the ground.If you notice the flares are slowing you down too much before touch down which results in a stalled touchdown (hard landing) then you might want to keep the power on for a bit longer.Hope this helps.- Neeraj

Hi all,Here's the formala for calculating the rate-of-decent on a final approach:The sine of 3 degrees = 0.052. If you're approaching the runway at 140 knots, or 236 feet per second, this comes to 14160 fpm. Remembering this is the forward motion of the aircraft, you take 0.052 X 14160, this comes to 741 fpm as the vertical rate-of-decent. This is based on a 3 degree ILS approach. When I fly manuallly, I usually hold my rate-of-decent at around 700 to 750 fpm. When you flare the airplane, the rate-of-decent will decrease so touch down will probably occur around 100 to 200 fpm.Ken.

>>of about -230ft/min.Nothing wrong with it.Michael J.