MD-11 Descent

[Guest patch10]

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?

[byork]

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,

[Guest isp437]

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

[Lucevan]

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

[CapP]

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.