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747x autopilot..

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hi!I am a newbie on the pmdg 747x. i've watched various tutorials but I can't manage to "replicate" the video.Can you tell me which buttons ( L NAV, V NAV, CMD...) to me it's very very confusing.So if you can could you tel me what "buttons" to push on the panel to make the autopilot function.Thanks for your help and assistance( this topic might seem stupid... but....as i said before the autopilot is very very confusing to me...)

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Lets get some things straight first: LNAV= Lateral Navigation, HeadingVNAV= Vertical Navigation, Altitude and Speed---OK, so you are at the hold short line, and have been cleared for takeoff. As you roll on the runway (or sometime before) roll the HDG (HeaDinG) wheel (AKA "Bug") to the general direction of the runway, set the SPD (SPeeD) knob to V2+10 kts, activate the A/T (AutoThrottle) ARM switch (flip it up), and roll the ALT (ALTitude) bug to your cleared altitude. Find V2 on the FMC takeoff page when you tell it which flaps setting you are using (Enter 10 or 20 into the L1 [First key on the Left side] slot). On the runway, accelarate throttle to above 70% N1 and press the screw between the A/T ARM switch and F/D (Flight Director) switch. Arm F/D at preferance."The Guy" (sorry) calls out V[ee]1, at this point, do not abort takeoff unless the aircraft WILL NOT fly. Engine failure"?", it will still fly on three. "Rotate" comes along, pull back on the yoke untill you reach 10 degrees of pitch. V2, you are now commited to fly, as in, you dont have enough runway left to stop.In the air, passing 200 AGL. Activate one of the three different autopilots availible under the A/P (AutoPilot) ENGAGE tagline, L, R, or C. After doing so, click on VNAV and press the center of the HDG knob (around where it says "SEL"). ATC, if availible will guide you to your filed route, not the one in the FMC, so be sure to file one to recieve accurate controlling. Roll the heading bug to the headings assigned to you. Once ATC gets you to your route, engage LNAV. When you climb above FL180, press "B", so FSX will be happy, then press the center of the BARO (BAROmeter) knob, where it says STD (STanDard). This sets the altimeter to the standard 29.92 inches of mercury.***FSX ATC NOTE: After takeoff, departure will say "Heading XXX, climb and maintain XXX, proceed on course. Odds are it will give you additional headings after saying so. Disregard proceed on course untill you either actually reach your route, or ATC says it a second time.***FSX ATC NOTE 2: FSX ATC is very bad at assigning climbing altitudes. You will have to be within 700 feet of altitude to recieve next altitude up untill cruise. By the time you recieve your altitude, you will most likely be at the altitude, at which point VNAV will keep you at that altitude. To continue climbing, dial new altitude and press FL CH (Flight Level CHange). Then re-engage VNAV when workload allows. To avoid this, dial an altitude 500-1000 feet above cleared so that you continue climbing while FSX gives you a new altitude.Flight Level 380. Nothing really going on at altitude. You make sure everything is working fine, and ask for a higher altitude when you reach S/C (Start Climb or [to me] Step Climb). Do this by setting new altitude and press FL CH. Then re-engage VNAV. You dump fuel if you are doing a short jaunt and dont care enough to lower your fuel load at the beginning.100 miles out, FL400. Almost at destination. ATC will begin your descent soon. Bring your altitude bug down to a reasonable altitude (FL300 or thereabouts) and await instruction. "Boeing747, desced and maintain FL280." Now press the FL CH button and your engines will spool down to "HOLD". Press VNAV (It is just one big circle of FL CH and VNAV). You will now descend at an economical rate. Now we change the altitude bug to what was assigned. Continue adjusting altitude bug to what ATC gives you.30 miles out, FL180. Transition Altitude, press the STD button previously acknowledged, and then press B. Getting closer to the destination, and the ground. Around here, FSX (or whomever) will ask you to turn off course. Set the heading bug and press the center of the HDG knob. LNAV will automatically diengage and the 747 will begin its turn. Along with this instruction, you will get an assigned approach. On the FMC DEP/ARR key, press R2 [second Right key] to open up the airport arrivals page. For the various pages, on the right side, there will be a selection of runway approaches. Select the appropriate one (ex. ILS 09R, VOR 10). Then press INIT REF (INITilization REFerence) key and continue pressing R6 until you reach the Approach REF page. Select your landing flaps by R1 or 2. That copies it to the scratchpad. Then paste it by pressing R4. VREF speed is the speed you will land at.10 miles out, 4000 AGL. Coming up on the (we'll say) ILS. You have followed ATC's headings and continually lower altitudes (and turned landing lights on, right?), and now comes the most exiting part of flight for stress level. You get to land this bird. For a detailed illustration on procedure, check out manual 03_Landing pages 14, 15, and 19. ATC lines you up and clears you for approach. On a precision approach (anything that includes some kind of localizer, in a nutshell), arm the LOC (LOCalizer) button. You will automatically turn to intercept the localizer. On an ILS approach, once you are all leveled out, press the APP (APProach) selector. You will now descend on the glideslope. Speed continues to drop (your job to adjust speed bug) as flaps come out on schedule. Before 1000 AGL, be at landing flaps and gear down. Open the COM (COMunications) panel and move the AutoBrakes selecter to the autobrake level you want. Now press "Shift+/", this arms the speedbrakes. Normally at 400 feet, the pilot would fly by hand to the runway, but the autopilot may be left on if desired to preform a full CAT3 (You cant see 5 feet in front of you kind-of-weather) landing. Turn NUM LOCK off.2500 feet out, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10. You have touched down. Quickly, disengage the autopilot and press NUM 5 (Num Lock off). This centers the controls, meaning you won't be turning 90 degrees left at center yoke. After autopilot disengages, hold down F2 for a few seconds. This puts reverse thrust on full. When you decellerate below 50-60 kts, open up the throttle a little bit to take engines out of reverse thrust, turn the autobrakes off, and press "/" to close the spoilers. Exit runway when able....-----------Sorry this was kind of long, but the autopilot plays a significant role in all phases of flight. Some techniques may vary so dont do exactly what I say if you find something that works better for you.


Eric Vander

Pilot and Controller Boston Virtual ATC

KATL - The plural form of cow.

KORD - Something you put in a power socket.

UNIT - Something of measure

My 747 Fuel Calculator

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Outstanding write up Eric! It may seem like a lot to grasp at first Thomas, but don't force yourself to learn it all at once, or be hard on yourself getting use to the terms and systems. It took me months and every day I learn something new. It's great to learn such in depth systems without ever setting foot in the air :wink:I did all the tutorials, read the manuals and then bought the AOA dvd's and life got a whole lote easier. Of course I asked my share of questions as well and continue to do so. It's nice when you stop and realize that you start answering more then you're asking :) But it will happen.


i9 10920x @ 4.8 ~ MSI Creator x299 ~ 256 Gb 3600 G.Skill Trident Z Royal ~ EVGA RTX 3090ti ~ Sim drive = M.2  2-TB ~ OS drive = M.2 is 512-gb ~ 5 other Samsung Pro/Evo mix SSD's ~ EVGA 1600w ~ Win 10 Pro

Dan Prunier

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Thanks Dan!'Tis true, cant get any closer than PMDG.On a personal note: Yes, 100 posts! I am now a member.


Eric Vander

Pilot and Controller Boston Virtual ATC

KATL - The plural form of cow.

KORD - Something you put in a power socket.

UNIT - Something of measure

My 747 Fuel Calculator

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Thanks very much erick for the answer! Extremly accurate and precise! :-)I know it'll be quite a bit before i fly this plane...Only one more step towards flying this aircraft..Thanks everyone for your assistance! :-)But the most annyoing part of all of it is that every time that I want to fly it that I have to put the route in manually! ;-) So I have to spend half an hour or more to set up the route!!P.s Yesterday I wrote a post about the MD-11's Pressurizzation. Has anyone already had this problem previously ( MAX THROTTLE, ALL BLEED AIR GO OFF, CANNOT SWITCH THEM BACK ON, BLEED AIR TURN AUTOMATICLY TURN BACK ON, CAUSING THE PRESSURIZZATION TO FALL FROM 15000-20000 FT TO 3000-500 FT)

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P.s Yesterday I wrote a post about the MD-11's Pressurizzation. Has anyone already had this problem previously ( MAX THROTTLE, ALL BLEED AIR GO OFF, CANNOT SWITCH THEM BACK ON, BLEED AIR TURN AUTOMATICLY TURN BACK ON, CAUSING THE PRESSURIZZATION TO FALL FROM 15000-20000 FT TO 3000-500 FT)
No I havn't heard of this, but nor can I say its a problem. We cant breathe at 20,000 as much as we'd like which is why aircraft are pressurized at 5000-8000 feet. It's a comfort thing :)

Eric Vander

Pilot and Controller Boston Virtual ATC

KATL - The plural form of cow.

KORD - Something you put in a power socket.

UNIT - Something of measure

My 747 Fuel Calculator

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No I havn't heard of this, but nor can I say its a problem. We cant breathe at 20,000 as much as we'd like which is why aircraft are pressurized at 5000-8000 feet. It's a comfort thing :)
hi!I tried the steps today!When I switch v nav to l nav the plane starts to bank to the right... But do both v nav and l nav have to be on ( L nav i turn on when I get alligned with my route)?Thanks anyway for your assistance and especcialy patience.. how much did it take to write that reply??? :-)Thanks again!

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I'd say about an hour, but it was fun. I pretty much summed up my flights in the Queen.V-NAV = Vertical GuidanceL-NAV = Horizontal GuidanceFL CH= This tells the FMC to climb or descent to the ALT bug, but Speed/Mach is your responsability.There is no "Switching to" involved. They function mostly independant of each other and can hence be both on at the same time. I'm going to sum up when and where they should be on:Takeoff: None200+ AGL: VNAVOn Course: VNAV, LNAVCruise: VNAV, LNAVStep Climb: VNAV or FL CH, LNAVInitial Descent: VNAV or FL CH, LNAVOff Course for Approach: VNAV or FL CHLocalizer Alive: VNAV or FL CH, LOCGlideslope: APP


Eric Vander

Pilot and Controller Boston Virtual ATC

KATL - The plural form of cow.

KORD - Something you put in a power socket.

UNIT - Something of measure

My 747 Fuel Calculator

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I'd say about an hour, but it was fun. I pretty much summed up my flights in the Queen.V-NAV = Vertical GuidanceL-NAV = Horizontal GuidanceFL CH= This tells the FMC to climb or descent to the ALT bug, but Speed/Mach is your responsability.There is no "Switching to" involved. They function mostly independant of each other and can hence be both on at the same time. I'm going to sum up when and where they should be on:Takeoff: None200+ AGL: VNAVOn Course: VNAV, LNAVCruise: VNAV, LNAVStep Climb: VNAV or FL CH, LNAVInitial Descent: VNAV or FL CH, LNAVOff Course for Approach: VNAV or FL CHLocalizer Alive: VNAV or FL CH, LOCGlideslope: APP
sorry if bugging!Do I put L nav ( horizontal gudiance ;-) )when I am over my planned route?Thanks again very much!!!

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You engage LNAV around 5 miles away from your planned route and are on an intercept course.


Eric Vander

Pilot and Controller Boston Virtual ATC

KATL - The plural form of cow.

KORD - Something you put in a power socket.

UNIT - Something of measure

My 747 Fuel Calculator

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You engage LNAV around 5 miles away from your planned route and are on an intercept course.
thanks again derik!I'm flying the plane as I write this!It took me three times to get it right..1st and 2nd failed but at the third BINGO! ;-)Thanks again for everything!! xD

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