To all real world 737 NG pilots out there.What actually gets done during the cruise portion of a flight ?I have heard the term monitor systems quite a lot, but what actually does that mean when flying the real 737 NG.We have heaps of checklists and information about the startup, pre takeoff, takeoff, after takeoff, descent, landing and shutdown. I want to make my flights more real but I have nothing to do during the cruise.ThanksNiall

Niall,>I want to make my flights more real but I have>nothing to do during the cruise.There you go. Hahaha :-). You already got it as real as it gets!Cheers,

737's are used in short to medium haul (longest I can think of is 5 plus hours from KSAN to PHNL). Some are only ninety minutes with many at 2.5 hours or so. Go to flightaware.com and select some B73x flights such as Tranair. For Europe look at Air Berlin, Hapag-Lloyd (TUIfly), Air Europa, etc., schedules.Most of these can be in very busy air space. In the US northeast corridor many are TRACON routes never involving ATC center. Cruise time is not that long for a proper protocol.Between busy departure and arrival I use enroute time to brief possible arrival scenarios such as look at possible STARS and IAPs, arrival weather, and cross check navigation. There is fuel burn monitoring to do (various PROG pages) as well as scan instruments for abnormalities in mechanics. Traffic monitoring is a must, don't just depend on ATC. Navigation monitoring and cross checking is a good idea in case errors creep in. Geographical awareness is necessary including topographic features and nearest suitable airports should an unplanned landing be required.For long haul stuff there are no return points and emergency reachable destinations constantly being planned on charts.During cruise also offers a good time to experience various pages of the FMC such as rehearsing FIX practices, etc.I can think of lots do do :).

Thanks Ron, I see now there is a lot to do.CheersNiall

CoffeeEatCoffeeNewspaperCoffeeEatCoffee;-) David

David, that's awfull! You really, really shouldn't do that.Don't you know that's dangerous........ Try Tea instead - it's not so bad for you;-)