Descending to and maintaining a HOLD in VNAV in the 744

[JSACKS 0]

If I am doing a regular VNAV PTH descent in The Queen and passing through 12,000' (for the sake of argument) ATC asks me to hold at say 7000', and my MCP ALT reads, say, 3000', should I wind the MCP ALT window back up to 7000' or is VNAV supposed to level me off into the HOLD--assuming I tune it into the FMC correctly--without taking any further action?Jonathan

[downscc 1,327]

I recommend making it a habit to set the MCP ALT to ATC clearance, which protects you climbing and descending.

[Chris from Angle of Attack 7]

As Dan mentioned, that is a good habit to get into. However, if you were coming down from 12K and wanted to hold at 7K with VNAV, and still have the MCP window at 3000, it can be done.When you enter the hold in the FMC, just make sure you set your speed and altitude is LSK1R and the VNAV should pick everything up from there. Once you exit the hold, the VNAV should descend to the next altitude constraint, not unnecessarily that of the MCP window.Usually, under 10K, VNAV isn't used a whole heck of a lot. It all depends on the situation, of course, but I usually use FLCH under 10K (as well as the majority of captains our there).Happy Flying!