Im not satisfied by my landings so far, this is what I do, on final after picking up the loc and g/s and when 1000 is called I disconnect the AP and fly it in manually, the ATS is armed controlling my speed, at 50-40 ft I begin to flare, but it seems like my throttles do not retard. Should I disconnect ATS as well with the AP or should they be retarding. It makes for a very bouncy landing or a long drift down the runway. Anyways just want to know what the more experienced MD11 pilots do, I might be right out to lunch so feel free to set me straight.

I press F1 to close the throttles at 50 ft and then a smooth slight flare, just enough to put the mains on first. I have found the MD11 sensitive to "over flaring" and she responds best to being flown onto the runway. With LSAS, control movements should be small adjustments, sorta like a bump and watch. Once you get the feel, she is very easy to put down consistently. Consistency is the goal here.

Because I am beta testing scenery I am making short flights.Therefor I only use the CDU to set the ILS at the moment.I remarked that when landing the reversers would not be active and the throttles stayed at the landing speed position without going to idle.To make it work I land the aircraft , disconnect the ap on the yoke , than disconnect the ATS and press the wheel brakes.From that moment on I can use my hardware throttles to activate the reversers.I tried to take over the throttles at 1000 ft , but the ATS would not disconnect.So I called KLM and asked for a MD-11 pilot at the simulator department.As former helpdesk for the largest Dutch flightsimclub I have had several contacts in the past so I knew where i had to call.This afternoon I got a call from a MD-11 captain with his FO beside of him.He told me that when flying and pressing the disconnect button on the throttles at every time they could be operated by hand.When landing at St.Maarten they always operated the throttles by hand and have the AP on.Why I cannot do the same I do not know.I will try with F1, but thought that the idle position of my hardware throttles was enough.

You cannot disconnect the autothrottle by moving the throttles, you have to use the instinctive A/T disconnect buttons, located on the side of throttle 1 and throttle 3, or use the default FS key to disengage autothrottle (SHIFT+R)

In the PMDG keyboard command window is says disengaeg ATS = Tab + z.But no reaction.I tried Shift + R and it worked ! Thanks :(

Isn

Isn

The default msfs command will not work. Assign an unused keycommand in the pmdg options menu for ATS disconnect.

Yes, the MD-11 seems to work better being flown onto the runway as opposed to a typical flare technique. I have a couple other add-ons like this too. In this case it helps to start down below the glideslope when it's visually safe to do so so you can be sure to touchdown within the TDZ. This way you won't worry about eating up runway while trying to lose speed and level out for smooth touchdown. If done properly you shouldn't hear the glideslope warning, but if you do, just press the button on the panel to silence it. Actually, you can drop below the glideslope anytime on any aircraft if you're wanting to get down on the numbers or soon after. As long as visibility is good, then it's no problem. This sometimes helps with certain aircraft that are difficult in sim to flare and land smoothly.

I've gone though all the replies here and I saw lots of suggestions regarding disconnecting ATS.One thing to point out in response to Ian's question: Yes the throttles SHOULD retard to idle if ATS is left engaged. If no extreme winds are present she will land just fine using ATS for the landing, disconnecting ATS is not necessary.IF ATS does not retard to idle there might be something hardware wise interfering with that. Ian, try to do a full autoland with your yoke/joystick disabled to see if throttles would go to idle (if they don't there's something you're not doing correctly).If they do then do the same thing with your flight control hardware enabled, make sure your throttle lever(s) is(are) set to idle on short final and that there are no spikes or mis-calibration present.If you get throttles idling on an autoland it will also work for a manual landing, ATS does not differentiate whether AP is on or off.Let us know how it works out and if you can get them to idle automatically somehow.Regards,Markus

I've gone though all the replies here and I saw lots of suggestions regarding disconnecting ATS.One thing to point out in response to Ian's question: Yes the throttles SHOULD retard to idle if ATS is left engaged. If no extreme winds are present she will land just fine using ATS for the landing, disconnecting ATS is not necessary.IF ATS does not retard to idle there might be something hardware wise interfering with that. Ian, try to do a full autoland with your yoke/joystick disabled to see if throttles would go to idle (if they don't there's something you're not doing correctly).If they do then do the same thing with your flight control hardware enabled, make sure your throttle lever(s) is(are) set to idle on short final and that there are no spikes or mis-calibration present.If you get throttles idling on an autoland it will also work for a manual landing, ATS does not differentiate whether AP is on or off.Let us know how it works out and if you can get them to idle automatically somehow.Regards,Markus

Rgr Markus, thanks Im using the CH yoke, I will pay close attention to the throttle lever position on the yoke, I can't 100% say for sure that have had it set all the way to idle the few times I have not used the autoland.

Yes, the MD-11 seems to work better being flown onto the runway as opposed to a typical flare technique. I have a couple other add-ons like this too. In this case it helps to start down below the glideslope when it's visually safe to do so so you can be sure to touchdown within the TDZ. This way you won't worry about eating up runway while trying to lose speed and level out for smooth touchdown. If done properly you shouldn't hear the glideslope warning, but if you do, just press the button on the panel to silence it. Actually, you can drop below the glideslope anytime on any aircraft if you're wanting to get down on the numbers or soon after. As long as visibility is good, then it's no problem. This sometimes helps with certain aircraft that are difficult in sim to flare and land smoothly.

Chris,Everyone in the FS simulation environment is entitled to its own landing technique.To prevent a landing 'before the numbers' this may give you some more usefull information.From the MD11 FCOM, Procedures and Techniques, pages PT.40.2 and 3 give information about the trajector of the main gear, in relation to your eye or GS antenna point. Hope it gives you an even better guestimate to prepare your landing.Regards,Harry

Even though this is the 747, my MD-11 landings always look like this using manual techniques (no AP):I usually end up somewhere past the TDZ on most runways, but it depends on how long the runway is, visibility, and whether I'm using an ILS for visual guidance.

I've gone though all the replies here and I saw lots of suggestions regarding disconnecting ATS.One thing to point out in response to Ian's question: Yes the throttles SHOULD retard to idle if ATS is left engaged. If no extreme winds are present she will land just fine using ATS for the landing, disconnecting ATS is not necessary.IF ATS does not retard to idle there might be something hardware wise interfering with that. Ian, try to do a full autoland with your yoke/joystick disabled to see if throttles would go to idle (if they don't there's something you're not doing correctly).If they do then do the same thing with your flight control hardware enabled, make sure your throttle lever(s) is(are) set to idle on short final and that there are no spikes or mis-calibration present.If you get throttles idling on an autoland it will also work for a manual landing, ATS does not differentiate whether AP is on or off.Let us know how it works out and if you can get them to idle automatically somehow.Regards,Markus

I recalibrated my yoke and made sure this time it was fully set to idle and the ats did retard to idle, maby that was the problem. Thanks for the help.

Even though this is the 747, my MD-11 landings always look like this using manual techniques (no AP):I usually end up somewhere past the TDZ on most runways, but it depends on how long the runway is, visibility, and whether I'm using an ILS for visual guidance.

Chris,These pictures show an excellent landing Touch Down Point.The touch down zone has a total lenght of 900 meters.Your touch down point is at the 450 mtr mark, which is halfway in the TDZ, and excellent compared to real world standards.Regards,Harry