When flying in autopilot, on arrival at T/D point I descend to the selected approach height, speed is reduced at the appropriate time to that set in the FMC and after flap settings, lands perfectly.However, sometimes I want to descend to approach height before T/D but am unsure how to do it.With the 747-400X you can use the FLCH button but I am unaware of any similar function in the MD-11. I am able to bring it down to approach level by setting the V/S wheel to (say) -1500 or so but the airspeed does not reduce from the cruise speed which ,of course, makes autopilot landing impossible.Can anyone help me with this?

Hi,That question might be best for the PMDG forum (a couple up from here), but the MD-11 does have its own FLCH. Just pull the ALT knob.Cheers,

Patch10,I seem to have a similar problem. During approaches, I will disconnect the AP and fly a manual approach. I can't seem to reduce speed on approach and end up overshooting. Even though the ATS appears disconnected, my approach speed does not seem to diminish.John Ferriss

I think you need to go to the menu bar Add-ons/PMDG/Keyboard Commands/throttles and assign a keystroke to disengage ATS.Then you can use it disengage the auto throttle before you run out of runway.That's what I did anyway.Lucevan

You can disengage ATS, but you can also set altitude, heading and speed independend of the FMS by setting the desired value and then pulling the knob.