Just signed up to vatsim (blicken eck) i need all the help i can get :-lol plus need to put more pratice on the pmdg 747 before i even try to file a flight plan through them but makes me more eager to get up there and try it out plus need to find my headset and mic my misses has miss laid it somewhere

The amount of hand flying I do is dependant on many factors. If I haven't flown for a while I will hand fly to top of climb just to get a feel for it again (assuming there is not a complex departure procedure or high volume of ATC work. This is not fair on the PM who has to monitor me as well as respond to my commands and listen/reply to ATC) . After levelling out I plug in the AP as I am sure the passengers would rather have the smoothness of the autopilot than my efforts. The descent on the otherhand is really dependant on the level of fatigue after the sector as well as the same factors affecting the climb as well as the current weather conditions. Most crew generally disconnect the AP at anywhere from 1500 ft down to approach minima. On a nice day (and short flight)perhaps passing thru 10,000 ft I will disconnect. Altough perfectly acceptable to hand fly at any time longhaul flying just really doesn't lend itself to great amounts of hand flying. It is more centred on flight management and efficiency. Rarely do I use VNAV up until approach intercept. Usually I will make more use of HDG SEL and FLCH and possibly V/S for the final stages. Following ATC directions is much easier this way and speed control more precise.CheersSteve

With regards to this,I usually just ask for taxi clearance and takeoff clearance..then fly my own FMC based flight plan. How do you deal with landing though?When I get close enough I usually am asked to contact approach but I'm usually way too close already to t he airport and have a FMC planned approach w/ runway by the time I am allowed to ask for full stop landing clearance. I also play with traffic which makes it a little difficult? How do most of you do landing when dealing with traffic and flying into your FMC based approaches? ie. What if there's another 747 on Final as you're coming in????? Do you manually take control and go around?? :) >You can't.>>If you are using default ATC, then you need to create an IFR>flight plan so you get IFR services.>>I suggest VATSIM instead of default ATC, 1000x better!>www.vatsim.net :)