737 Descent

[Guest Spader]

I have had a minor problem. It hasn't been too big, but a tad annoying. The descent calculated by the FMC is not long enough, and the plane won't descend faster than 1000 fpm. The reason that it doesn't end in catastrophic failure and me not reaching my destination is that I turn arond in a circle to compensate for the altitude at which I am not at.And, when I try to set the Descent to a PATH descent before the T/D, the FMC switches to a SPD descent after the T/D.In a nutshell, there is not enough space in between the T/D and my destination, and the FMC expects me to drop like a rock, but I can't if the AP won't allow for a descent faster than 1000 fpm.What am I doing wrong/ what do I do to fix this?

[Guest dajackman]

I too have this problem. I have been putting myself in a hold. Seems like 1 lap in a 1 minute hold does the trick.....(robby)

[Guest alex_th2]

I have had a similar problem and in my oppionon its a hugh bug in the sim...what happens is that not all paramters are saved when saving a flight. When loading a flight situation (in this case a flight with app. 20 NM to T/D), the plane will not follow VNAV descent profile because the autothrottles are not working at all...The speed mode annunciator is blank and does not show the usual mode (SPD, then IDLE, then HOLD). What needs to be done is to turn off autopilot and auto throttle, click on VNAV and turn on autopilot and auto throttle again...then the descent is working properly...hope this gets fixed in the next update..Cheers,Alex

[Guest Spader]

I don't save he game, and the A/T was working.

[Guest tomahawk_pa38]

I hope I haven't misunderstood your dilemma and apologies if I'm teaching you guys to suck eggs, but this has been covered a number of times in the forum. I presume you are using VNAV Path and that you get the Unable next Alt message or Des Path Unachievable ?If you are you have to remember that the path calculated by the FMC depends on the winds and temperatures YOU have forecast and input into the Descent Page of the FMC. if you don't out anything in, or if you input something completely wrong, then you will not descend at the proper rate because the plane is calculating the best rate of descent from a fuel usage and environmental (I think) point of view. Since I started putting values into the wind speed and direction - I rarely get any FMC descent error messages even if what I've put in has been a guess based on common prevailing wind directions (usually about westerly in the UK).My autothrottles certainly work Ok and I don't generally now get descent errors.

[Guest dajackman]

I never get any errors, I just seem to arrive too high. I will try entering some data in there next time and see if that helps.(Robby)