Hi again,Are you supposed to fly with the A/T on right the way to touching the ground in the 737?? What is normal practice in the real world for this type??Thanks in advanceMark

If you are doing an autoland then definitely yes.... It will automatically idle the throttles just before touchdown.If you are hand flying an approach with the auto- throttle you will need to turn it off just before touchdown.Peter

>you will need to turn it off just before touchdown.Would real world pilots do that via soft disconnect or hard disconnect. I would think soft because of the event of a go around.

During a manual landing it is safe to touchdown with the autothrottle engaged. It will automatically disengage at touchdown. This is not a common technique though. Except for a CAT II/IIIa autoland, the autothrottle is usually disengaged by the PF during a manual landing at around 100 to 500 feet AGL.Floyd

>During a manual landing it is safe to touchdown with the>autothrottle engaged. It will automatically disengage at>touchdown. This is not a common technique though. >Except for a CAT II/IIIa autoland, the autothrottle is usually>disengaged by the PF during a manual landing at around 100 to>500 feet AGL.>>Floyd Yes but that would go for good weather, if it was windy I doubt that A/T could react as fast as the PIC could...[h4]Randy J. Smith[/h4]AMD 64 4000+|ASUS K8V DELUXE|SAPPHIRE ATI X800XT PE|MUNCHKIN 3200|80 gig SATA|DELL 1905FP 19" LCD|TRACKir PRO|PFC JEPPESEN MOONEY YOKE|CH PRO PEDALS|

It gets a little hectic for me at touchdown so I disconnect A/T when I see they have been idled. I don't have the fastest fingers in the world so I try to keep my workload to a minimum. But I do let the A/P idle the throttles before disconnect.

I disconnect the 'A/T' when the speed reaches the setting I require for a comfortable landing.The autothrottle continues to thrust at that setting until I close the throttles manually before touchdown.I find that this tip works on all aircraft.Origin: Ian P of www.knightair.org Dave T. .........On the Devon Riviera and active 'FlightSim User's Group' member at http://www.flightsimgrpuk.free-online.co.uk/

Just to add, the pilot can always easily override the autothrottle's position and hold the thrust levers in a new position. By the way, when doing an auto land, airspeed bugs are always set a Vref+5. It is not necessary to add 1/2 the wind and all the gust like in a manual landing. This is because the autothrottle has a very capable wind gust sensing system. Floyd