Hello, 747 crews !I think I have been a good boy this year, so I think I deserve a beautiful present for Christmas: The PMDG-747/400 !, better known as "The Queen".I am eagerly waiting for the day......And to fly EIDW-KBOS (Dublin-Boston) as my first Atlantic crossing.I have already downloaded the manuals, tutorials and TRCs and have started to study that enormous amount of knowledge.But I have two questions for you, Jumbo-Jet-Experts:1.- Has the 747 a "Control Wheel Steering" (CWS) mode like the 737NG has, to maintain a selected pitch-bank attitude ?2.- It can be seen in many 747 videos that when bringing the throttles to takeoff power, both the captain and the first officer are pushing the levers at once. Is it so hard to move them, or one hand is not wide enough to push the four levers ?Thanks for your answers.Jose Luis.

Hi Jose,No the 747-400 does not have control wheel steering.A normal Takeoff uses the Auto throttles. The pilot handling the thrust levers will initially set a thrust value of approx 70%N1 (GE engines)or 1.1 EPR (Rolls Royce). It is approximately the vertical position. This allows the engines to commence spool up and to ensure that all engines accelerate evenly. Once the engines have stabilised at that setting for a few seconds the TOGA (Take off/Go-around) switch is depressed (2 switches forward on the thrust levers ahead of levers 2 and 3, not the ones on the side). This will engage the autothrottles and they will advance the thrust levers to set the selected take off thrust setting (via the thrust ref page on the FMC). There is no need to have two pilots backing up this procedure (usually the support pilot would tweak the levers to get symmetrical thrust), it is a hang up from days of old and really just adds to the confusion should a rejected TO be needed early in the TO roll. The autothrottles can be easily overridden by hand if need be.It is most important that when setting TO thrust that the intermediate spool up setting is observed. If the levers where to be advanced straight to the TO setting and an outboard engine was slow to spool up or "hangs up" then the assymetric thrust condition will make maintaining runway alignment difficult if not impossible. Treat thrust management in this beast with respect.Happy flying.

Thanks a lot for your answer Steve !!It is really a luxury having real 747 pilots like you in this forum. The information you give is most of the times 100% useful and clear.Jose Luis.