Hi,Question 1.Allthough V2 gets automatically set in the Speed Window, I have gotten into the habbit of replacing it with V2+15 . I find that very convenient. Is that acceptable and if no, why not ?Question 2.Why is it not neccesary to set one or both of the Engine Start Switches to "CONT" during take off? Does the "AUTO" setting guarantee ignition during T/O ?Thanks for feedback,

Answer 1The flight director pitch bars command V2+15 regardless of what is set in the window.If you have an engine failure and have to actually fly V2 you wouldn't want to have V2+15 set on the bug. As the engine failure is the critical case, we set the plane up for that case.Answer 2Whenever the flaps aren't up 'auto' will provide the same level of ignition as 'cont' so no need to switch them to cont yourself!

>The flight director pitch bars command V2+15 regardless of >what is set in the window. Can this be a customer option, or different software (etc.)?My 767 manual states:"After takeoff, the AFDS commands a pitch attitude to maintain:

>If you have an engine failure and have to actually fly V2 >you wouldn't want to have V2+15 set on the bug. As the >engine failure is the critical case, we set the plane up for >that case.Yes, that makes sense.>Whenever the flaps aren't up 'auto' will provide the same >level of ignition as 'cont' so no need to switch them to >cont yourself!Thanks very much for clarifying this issues.

Erm...Umm...Yeh, you win :-)I was thinking it wouls use the V2 speed out of the FMC, but obviously not. So there is an even better reason for setting V2 in the window! Otherwise the FD bars will be targeting V2+15+15.. if you get my drift!

This topic is often a source of endless confusion... and is just as complex, if not more so, on the 747-400 (I gave up a long time ago trying to figure out the MCP, Autopilot and FMC interact ;-)).Not sure if it's the same for the 767, but when you change the MCP speed, the FMC VNAV CLB page title/header changes. It shows "ACT xxxKT CLB", where xxx is the current MCP speed plus 10kts (the 747-400 uses V2 + 10kts instead of V2 + 15kts). However, when you manually enter a V2 value on the TAKEOFF REF page, changing the MCP speed does nothing to the header. The xxx value becomes your manually entered TAKEOFF REF page V2 speed plus 10kts. However, until VNAV mode becomes active at 400' (or when VNAV is selected above this height), I believe the AP still uses the selected MCP speed as a reference for initial climbout.They only give you the basics on this sort of stuff during engineering training... You have to figure out the rest of this stuff for yourself :-roll Unfortunately, this sort of complexity is not even modelled in sims like PS1.Cheers.Ian.

What's really interesting is that some people at Boeing figured out how it all should work... ;-)Oh, by the way, have the level D sims got all of this right?Martin767 fetishistIt's a lot like life and that's what's appealing

"Oh, by the way, have the level D sims got all of this right?"Still working out a way to get myself a ride on a Level A sim, Martin :-hahSims actually use real airplane parts and (some) real computers, so they should be pretty close in some respects (There even exists the possibility of robbing a part from a simulator to fit on a real aircraft if there is a shortage of spares).However, there will always be something which is not quite right. You can't model the real world without some loss of realism/fidelity. If you ever want to make a bunch of aircraft engineers fall over laughing, just let them watch one of those airplane disaster movies. They're guaranteed to spot at least one hilarious mistake a minute ;-)Cheers.Ian.

>If you ever want to make a bunch of >aircraft engineers fall over laughing, just let them watch >one of those airplane disaster movies. They're guaranteed to >spot at least one hilarious mistake a minute ;-) I think this applies to almost anyone with an aviation interest! However some movies are quite accurate... can't remember one off the top of my head though! ;-)Martin767 fetishistIt's a lot like life and that's what's appealing

First rule of Sim: "Just because it does it in the simulator, doesn't mean the aircraft does it the same way" Trust me. After 4 years of teaching in the Level C Learjet 35 sim, I know not to completely trust them. I have an ongoing dispute with the things the Learjet 45 level D does that I know for a fact the real plane doesn't do.Rich