How do you perform several touch and go procedures in an MD-11 without battling the FMC every time? I like perfecting my landings with it, and that's why I want to do a circling pattern around the airport and land every 5-10 min. But this bird is not making it easy. It seems like it's easier with a Boeing, or I might be mistaken. Either way, check out this video. I wanna do exactly what's being done there. PS: I know this procedure is done mostly in GA planes, but airliners are fully capable, or at least should be capable of doing them aswell.

Would love to hear some suggestions.

You can program the FMS once. And at 3000' AGL for instance, you can save your flight by pressing the $ key. Then, you will be able to land as many times as you want withouth circling (aerodynamic performances of the MD11 suck!)have fun!

Yeah, but that's exactly it, I want to do it without saving the flight. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Emil: If you don't intend to use the automation why not just fly the airplane? The basic A/P and ATS functions should still be available. (Maybe I don't understand the problem, and probably won't watch the video).

Dan, I guess that's true, but it's harder in a MD-11 seeing as it does not have a green guidance arc/band on the ND, and I can't create a DME fix circle stay to oriented around the airport. The FMC also seems to dislike this procedure a lot, and it's a little confusing determining what to program in. If anyone has a nice and effective way of doing this procedure please feel free to share it. And PS: The video is actually pretty cool. ;-)

You shouldn't need the ND to fly a local pattern. Takeoff, turn crosswind (or navy calls it breakout), turn downwind, base and final. Land and repeat. I'm pretty sure I've done this a couple of times in all aircraft in my hanger.

Well it would make it a lot easier with some ND guidance, but I guess it's possible to do it without it. Thanks for helping out.

Well it would make it a lot easier with some ND guidance, but I guess it's possible to do it without it. Thanks for helping out.

Emil,why would you need it? Flying a visual circuit is just that, flying visual. Of course should you fly the 2D panel things are more difficult doing visual compared to flying the VC using something like TrackIR.However if you really want something on your ND, try entering a VOR if available on the airfield, then use its bearing pointer to judge your position. Using this together with the runway's heading it can be of some help. However looking out of the window should in ANY way be the primary means of navigation.If you fly using the VC do left-hand patterns whenever possible, makes it a lot simpler when flying on the Captain's side.And for the rest of the FMC. You just enter your weight and TO data before the first departure. Then memorise those speeds. Then on approach call up the APPR page. Memorise those speeds as well. Then you may disregard any FMS things for the rest of your training and use those speeds you memorised on every circuit.Markus

What FMC? Go-around is easy - call "GO AROUND" as you pitch up, applying TOGA at the same time. Select Flap 15 then gear up. Fly straight ahead to go-around altitude, then fly the missed procedure, or as directed, or the circuit, or whatever.Remember, after going around, CALL THE AFTER-TAKEOFF CHECKLIST! Best regards,Robin.

Emil,why would you need it? Flying a visual circuit is just that, flying visual. Of course should you fly the 2D panel things are more difficult doing visual compared to flying the VC using something like TrackIR.However if you really want something on your ND, try entering a VOR if available on the airfield, then use its bearing pointer to judge your position. Using this together with the runway's heading it can be of some help. However looking out of the window should in ANY way be the primary means of navigation.If you fly using the VC do left-hand patterns whenever possible, makes it a lot simpler when flying on the Captain's side.And for the rest of the FMC. You just enter your weight and TO data before the first departure. Then memorise those speeds. Then on approach call up the APPR page. Memorise those speeds as well. Then you may disregard any FMS things for the rest of your training and use those speeds you memorised on every circuit.Markus

Yes, this is almost exactly what I've been doing. But the last bit you said actually set me straight, that is what I need to do. Memorize the speeds and be quick to reconfigure/ retrim the aircraft after each bounce. And after all, it is indeed a visual circuit. I haven't been flying much for a while now so I kept thinking to myself: "What am I missing?". Turns out, not much. ;-) Thanks for the help guys.Robin, its a touch and go, not MA. ;)

One thing you might want to try (I don't know if this will work in the MD-11 - I don't have the aircraft) is to manually tune in the ILS into NAV 1 and leave that up all the time for the electronic backup of your visual circuit.Touch and goes is a really high workload environment and there might be a few gotchas that might happen that you might not expect. In the aircraft I fly - once you touch down and then apply TOGA thrust - the master warning goes off - the takeoff configuration warning goes off complaining about the speed brakes being deployed (which is normal after a touchdown) but you just applied takeoff power to touch and ago - and that satisfies the criteria to do the takeoff configuration check - and it finds the spoilers deployed - fire off the master warning - the spoilers will come down automatically eventually and you can continue the touch and go. But it's alarming the first time you see it and someone hasn't told you to expect the master warning or you didn't understand the systems well enough to walk through what all is going on during the touch and go to expect the master warning.Anyways, for a visual touch and go / patternwork - I wouldn't worry about programming the FMS - just fly the airplane - run all your checklists, recheck your landing speeds at some point (like on downwind where you run your after takeoff/climb/cruise/descent/approach checklist) and use the ILS that you've manually tuned in to keep your SA around the pattern.Steve W.

Yeah Steve, I always tune the ILS freq for guidance. Spoilers remain unarmed so they will not deploy on touchdown, but a short warning will sound only for a second after I bring the throttles back up which is normal. Thanks for the input.