Thanks for these posts Simon. It is a pleasure to read every single word of them.

Great stuff. This is the sort of thing that inspires me to fly the sim. Many thanks for taking the time to post.

Thanks a million Simon, It's posts like yours that make this community what it is, keep up the great work and hopefully we'll get the end of the story soon.

Like everyone else I would like to thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience with us with your very inspiring posts!

Simon, Howzit, another fellow "Sefrican" here. THANKS so much for this info, it is awesome!!You said that Boeing is delivering some new 800s to Kulula in the new year, any possibility of the possible routing they would use to get the bird here? Lekker man,Rob

Hi there Rob, I don't think they've actually planned the routes yet to be honest! The first one is only due in about June I think, and all the senior guys have already hogged the delivery flights (no surprises there), so I don't think I'll get to have much to do with it - I'll be on the lookout for that once it comes up though. The other route that gets done (although not with the -800's so far) is to Lasham in the UK for 'D' checks (the major ones). Believe it or not, we save millions by doing this, including the ferry flights! Again, I'm not sure of the routing, but I'll keep my eyes open.

Anyway, we'll join our crew as they approach the calculated TOD whilst still in the cruise. I appreciate all the thanks, I'm happy to be able to share this. During the cruise, as mentioned, there isn't a vast amount to do, but there is enough to keep us from falling asleep. Apart from the previously mentioned paperwork, some important points to consider are: Fuel monitoring - sounds obvious of course, and luckily there isn't too much to do in this regard. Aside from the fuel checks at each waypoint, if we are carrying fuel in the centre tank the pumps will need to switched off once we get the first indication of a low pressure warning from one of them. The centre tank pumps are switched off and the scavenging system will attempt to get the last few drops out of the centre tank and into the #1 tank. Another aspect to watch is fuel balance. The manual states that the imbalance limt is 453kg (yup, that 1000lb number again!), and it's important not to go for the sense of perfection that a lot of guys have, who try and zeroise out even the smallest imbalance. This procedure is nominally carried out from the book (supplementary procedures), although in practice this doesn't happen (naughty!). The reason for the paranoia from Boeing, is that far too many crew have done something wrong here - for example, turning the low side pumps off before they open the crossfeed valve, or my other favourite, forgetting that they're busy balancing fuel and allowing the imbalance to end up on the other side! My personal paranoia regarding fuel though is a steathly fuel leak, since if you're not careful, the first indication you'll get is a 'Using reserve fuel' warning from the FMC as your calculated fuel remaining drops below the value you typed into the FMC before start. Ideally you'd catch this sooner, and be able to start making a plan in time to actually achieve something. In reality it's an extremely rare failure luckily, but naturally during recurrent training the simulator's fuel tanks are riddled with holes (terrible maintenance on that simulator, stuff ALWAYS fails!) so it's something we deal with often enough to keep us on our toes. Fuel monitoring is technically the PM's job, but naturally this is something that both crewmembers will back each other up on. Running out of fuel being regarded as something on an epic fail in the industry.... Passenger comfort: The PM (Pilot monitoring) is responsible for adjusting and monitoring the one thing we have control over in that regard, the cabin temperature. The -800 shares the three zone controller with the -400, and I've often equated the tools we have as 'trying to do heart surgery with a butter knife', ie the instruments aren't always super helpful. This is one of those things that doesn't get much attention in FS, and also always works perfectly in FS. In reality, just because the zone temp reading is saying it's a pleasant 23*C in that zone, doesn't mean you're not going to get some hostie (our slang for cabin crew, and indeed they call themselves that too - it's not a derogatory term) coming in and saying 'We're freezing/melting back there!' They do try to be diplomatic usually (mostly) though! For some odd reason, on almost all the -800's we have, the ideal temperature reading for the zones is around 30*C! This is obviously not the actual temperature, but for some reason they all seem to share the same error - again, it's one of those quirks of the aircraft (I only have five examples to go on though). It's often better to try and modulate the temperature based on the supply air, ie if that's reading about 24*C, they should be ok. Another irritating quirk the -800 shares with the -400, is that everything can be ticking over nicely, all passengers seem happy, and suddenly the temp controller decides that the temp has dropped a bit, then turns on the flamethrowers to bring the temp back up to spec, ie it goes completely crazy with the heat until it decides you've had enough. You can often smell this in time and quickly make some adjustments. The older -200's and -300's had a manual control which would manually adjust the mixing valves - this was often the best. No such luck on the modern stuff though. Another small point here - under the old Boeing procedures, this job was always the F/O's, and some older Captains are kind of stuck in this mode. A contributing factor is that the controls and indications for this are miles away from the Captain, and indeed some shorter guys will simply ask for the F/O to do this the whole day since they can't reach! Radio monitoring: Again, nominally the PM's job, but that doesn't mean we don't back each other up. It's embarrassing for ATC to have to call us more than once, and we naturally have a friendly laugh at our fellow pilots who get gently chided by ATC for missing a call. Also, I've personally caught the pilot of a Cherokee during a forced landing calling on 121.5 - he was behind a mountain in relation to the nearest ATC, and we were able to relay his emergency and position to them for him. I've already mentioned the hilarity that ensues when some hapless pilot gives a passenger briefing over the air (PA is selected on the audio selector panel instead of VHF 1 or 2), and we counter that by always using the PA mic at the rear of the centre console for PA's. Speaking of which, we only normally do three - once before start, once at top of climb, and once at top of descent. I personally don't like yammering on, since most passengers are only interested in what time they'll get there, but we give some brief details of the flight nonetheless. For FS: I remember that the LevelD 767 (excellent) had cabin crew who would complain about the temperature, which at the time I found irritating. Thats pretty much how it is! Baring something like that, in FS I would imagine it's something to be glanced at and forgotten. The fuel monitoring is obviously important, and can be done in FS only if you have a proper flightplan, something that not everyone flies with. Also, the radio in FS is not nearly as alive as real life, a great pity really, although not something that's easily simulated.

Now, for some descent planning - this is critical to your energy management during the descent. The -800 is a freight train - it's very slick, it's noticeably harder to slow down when compared to the older 737's, and generally flies at slightly higher speeds to begin with, so you've got a lot of energy to manage. The 737's speedbrakes are notoriously ineffective on top of that. Prior to the calculated TOD, the PM will listen out for the destination ATIS, which all our destination fields have. Failing this, or if we are out of range of the ATIS, we ask ATC for the weather information. The area controllers will have issued us a clearance as we enter their airspace long before TOD, so we already have some idea of the runway in use and we will almost always have been cleared for a specific arrival. A note on this - ATC here will almost always issue a clearance for a specific procedure even if they have no intention of keeping you on the full procedure - this is to make sure that there is at least a basic plan for everyone, and also in the event of a radio failure, since you then have a far clearer picture of what they will expect you to do. I have a sneaky suspicion that ATC don't trust pilot's knowledge of the rules regarding radio failure, and frankly I can see their point! Some aircraft randomly blundering through your airspace while it's crew haul out their Jepp and read up on comms failure procedure is a real pain, regardless whether they've remembered to squawk 7600 or not! And yes, I make sure I know the rules regarding comms failure from memory! Now, to program the FMC - the more accurately you can program this, the better, since it relies on the information it has to accurately calculate a vertical path from your cruise altitude, to whatever restrictions the PF will place on the way down, be they speed or altitude. We will already have the expected STAR and runway set up before we even push back, and we verify that this is as per the current clearance. This will include all the speed and altitude restrictions on that STAR, which we cross check with the approach chart. Accurately forecast descent winds are one of the first things we enter (I enter them prior to pushback already, since they are on our flightplan, and are quite accurate). The QNH and temperature deviation from ISA standard are also entered, as is the transition level (which will allow the aircraft to warn you if both crew somehow fail to change settings). Again, these (or a guesstimate) will often have been entered before pushback but are double checked and refined now. While I'm discussing QNH, the -800 allows you to preselect the pressure setting at the landing field before you even start the descent, so that can be done too. Often, our experience with the aircraft, combined with a bit of local knowledge may cause us to enter further restrictions into the FMC. We also often increase the default KIAS (from the precomputed 'ECON' value) of the descent to a more common number, ie 300KIAS or 280KIAS. This will apply from after the initially flown mach number, until the almost inevitable 250KIAS restriction at the start of the STAR. Another critical value to check on, is whether the FMC has a useful EOD altitude (End of Descent altitude). To give an example, a lot of STARs end with radar vectors - naturally the FMC has no idea how many track miles will be used during these segments of the approach, so it makes a conservative guess - this guess is not normally a good reflection of whats actually going to happen, which would put you high on the profile that you'll end up flying. In these cases, it's better to put a hard altitude restriction in place before the vectored segment. As to what that altitude restriction should be.....you're going to have to do a little calculation based on how many track miles you expect to fly after that point. This is an important skill, and not something I can just type in a few sentences, but here's a basic (very basic - the manual has this in more detail!) rule - your block altitude change, in thousands of feet, mulitplied by 3 (ie from 10K' to 4K' is 6, then X 3 = 18 miles). Add some track miles if a slowdown is required during this point (ie 250 to 210: 250-210=40, then /10 = 4 miles needed to slow from 250 to 210 - again, this is very basic, but it's OK-ish until you get a proper feel for it!) As I said a couple of times there, that's very basic. To be honest, I tend to replace a lot (but not all) of the maths nowdays with a gut feel of what the aircraft is going to do (weight, for example also plays role - heavier aircraft hold onto energy for longer), but I have several thousand hours of flying the same routes so it works for me. The EOD values can be checked on the 'DES' page of the FMC. So, you've given the FMC everything you can. It will now refine it's calculation of the TOD point, which is of course drawn as a small green ring and labelled TOD on the Nav display. The PROG page 1 of the FMC will also give a countdown in track miles to the TOD point, and an ETA for this point. Prior to this point, you must have obtained clearance for descent, and set the cleared altitude in the MCP alt window. We normally ask for descent about 10nm prior to TOD. This of course assumes that we're still cruising along in VNAV PATH pitch mode of course. And, to a degree, LNAV, since too much of a deviation from the lateral track means the FMC (understandably) gets confused about what you're actually trying to do, and will probably revert to VNAV SPEED mode. An important point to understand here, is that during a VNAV PATH descent, the aircraft is NOT controlling speed with pitch - it's trying to fly the pre-computed path with pitch, and the correct speed is just incidental (or the result of good planning!) Naturally enough, sometimes it calculates the path slightly incorrectly, especially so if you feed it incorrect information, which will mean it cannot maintain the planned speed. More on this later.

...but meanwhile before actually going down, we're going to have to brief and discuss the arrival amongst ourselves. The PM has gotten all the weather, and whipped out his/her laptop to check that there are no restrictions on our arrival, such as brake cooling limitations, weight restrictions, restrictions regarding crosswinds/wet runway figures etc etc. They will also have radio'd ahead to our ops office to find out the planned ZFW changes for the next sector (so we can refine our fuel figure now already), our parking bay, and whether we will have a GPU available or not so we know whether we should start the APU (on short turnarounds we normally always use the APU though). The PF has programmed the FMC, done a basic descent calculation (using his/her head or calculator!) to back up and verify the FMC computed descent point, and had a good think about what is going to happen during the arrival and what their plan is to get it done properly, and set up all the instruments appropriately, including the MCP course windows, ADF's, VOR's, set ACAS display to 'Below', preplanned QNH setting, and decision altitude (both baro, and radar if needed for a CAT II/III approach, which I won't discuss here just yet!). The autobrake will be set as per preference, often just on 1, but sometimes 2 or 3 depending on runway length and condition. Some experience of the required decelleration for the high speed turnoff on that particular runway plays a role there too. As you can imagine, this takes some time, so you can't leave it all until 20nm from the TOD point. Getting it done sooner at a relaxed pace is always better, but a good crew can do it quite quickly nonetheless. Once all preparations for the descent are completed, the crew will have a quick discussion on the arrival. The PF will brief the approach using the approach and ILS charts as a reference, and then discuss how they've setup the FMC for the descent (although the PM will nomally always be aware of this, since any 'execution' on the FMC should be verified by both crewmembers), and discuss the use of autobrake, wipers, anti ice etc. We will also discuss anything abnormal, ie aircraft systems, weather, and plan around whatever the problems may be. The briefing will includes immediate actions in the event of a go-around, which either pilot can initiate, and what we would do following a go-around, especially fuel considerations. Once all this is completed, and the crew and aircraft are ready in all respects for the descent, a quick word to the passengers by the PF can be done. This is followed by the 'Descent Checklist'. Approaching the precomputed TOD point, the PM will ask ATC for descent clearance. If this isn't obtained, the FMC will start complaining at about 6 nm or so to run to the TOD by saying 'Reset MCP Alt', just in case the crew has somehow missed it. The aircraft will not descend unless the MCP has been reset to a lower level. If all conditions are met, the aircraft will begin a gentle nose down pitch at TOD. Down we go. For FS: You may not have very accurate wind info available for FS, but as long as it isn't too strong it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Upper air winds can be quite potent though. We routinely get winds well above 100 knots in winter time here which will naturally cause chaos with your descent prediction if it isn't entered (the FMC will interpolate between what it's actually experiencing, and what is predicted). Perhaps the simplest solution is to manually set lower windspeeds, or even zero wind initially, just to get an accurate result if you're still learning. I'll be honest, I don't have any experience of the better addons for FSX regarding weather, or their ability to provide a prediction before, or even during the flight. Nonetheless, you should be able to program the FMC with all the details as best you can, and it will work as per the real aircraft. As for flying with the approach/arrival plates, it will depend on what you have and what arrivals are available in the PMDG database. If you don't have any arrivals, you can always give yourself vectors to the final approach fix, which happens very often IRL anyway. As for the ILS, the FMC should give you the front course and frequency on the 'INIT REF' page at the very least, so just use that (I'm talking bare bones simming here!) That EOD value is important to check, as I mentioned earlier - Its also a bad idea, for example, to have only the final approach fix as a restriction - that way, if the aircraft gets it wrong, you've got no other points to use as reference until it's too late. IRL we constantly assess our descent using a quick mental calculation, which is a good skill to develop on the sim too.

An important point to understand here, is that during a VNAV PATH descent, the aircraft is NOT controlling speed with pitch - it's trying to fly the pre-computed path with pitch, and the correct speed is just incidental (or the result of good planning!) Naturally enough, sometimes it calculates the path slightly incorrectly, especially so if you feed it incorrect information, which will mean it cannot maintain the planned speed. More on this later.

This happens to me a lot when flying the NGX. Often because of the incorrect information - the lack of information, to be very honestly haha... Awesome thread Simon, very very thank you!

Thanks Simon, yeah I understand that the routes won't be planned yet, but the general idea will be to go via England, then down through Africa.The plane should be empty apart from the flight crew, and the fuel? and they will fly the max range on that config?

An important point to understand here, is that during a VNAV PATH descent, the aircraft is NOT controlling speed with pitch - it's trying to fly the pre-computed path with pitch, and the correct speed is just incidental

Doesn't it maintain the correct speed adjusting the throttles? Like many others, thank you very much for your time and effort.

If ever a post needed to be a sticky, this is it!! Thanx Simon for a great read every morning!

As the aircraft initiates it's descent, the thrust mode will change to RETARD, which when called out can be made to sound like an insult to your fellow crew member :) You can also pick out an appropriate politicians name to use instead of saying 'Retard', and they will understand. The thrust levers will be driven to closed, then the thrust mode will change to ARM (again, this means you can push them if needs be, but the A/T is still engaged. This is kind of a legacy from the old -200's, which would require a lot of manual intervention on the descent if anti-ice was needed, since you had to up the engine RPM for it to be effective). Now, as to how the aircraft wil control itself - since it's trying to fly a path, it will adjust pitch to maintain that path, which, even in real life, doesn't always work out so well. It also varies from aircraft to aircraft (one thing about flying - each individual aircraft always has it's own personality). We have one that will often end up diving aggressively to catch the path, and another that will always end up slow, and have to add thrust. Of those two extremes, slow is better. If an aircraft ends up having to chase the path down (you'll obviously see this on the vertical deviation display on the nav display) there's nothing it can do itself to correct this, other than say 'Drag required' on the FMC. In the meantime, it will happily end up going through the redline, and you'll get the overspeed warning, and a nice little letter in your mailbox asking you to come in and explain what went wrong. If you've planned for a nice slow descent (lets say M.74/280KIAS), and it's just edging 10knots over 280 (290KIAS) but not really any more, then you can safely disregard this warning for the moment. If however it's charging towards the redline (which happens), you're going to need to do something. My personal favourite is to revert to a pitch mode that controls speed directly, as opposed to the path following attempt of VNAV PATH. This can be done by pushing LVL CHG - the speed window on the MCP will come alive, and speed can be adjusted here then. Or, by changing to VNAV SPEED on the DES page of the FMC (there's a company option which could affect this though) Naturally, the planned vertical path will now disappear underneath you as the aircraft raises it's nose to slow down. Depending on the rate, you may well need the speedbrake now. Extending speedbrake is something the aircraft cannot do by itself in the air. I mentioned earlier that the 737 speedbrake isn't that great, but bear in mind that it's effectiveness is still best at higher airspeeds (drag rises with the square of the speed, thankfully). Using the speedbrake is best (but not always) done in an 'on or off' approach - half settings tend to make the ailerons particularly sensitive, and the aircraft can be quite twitchy in roll then. Once you are satisfied with the vertical path of the aircraft, they can be stowed, but be on the lookout - if it tended to go fast in the beginning, it's often going to tend that way the whole descent. On the flipside of the coin, if the aircraft ends up slow, once it gets about 10KIAS below the target speed it will start to use thrust to regain the planned speed. The A/T FMA annunciation will change to FMC SPEED, and it will use whatever thrust is required to accelerate and maintain the planned descent speed. This is fine for keeping on track, but not so fine for your fuel consumption in the long term (it won't use that much extra for that particular flight - idle fuel flows are about 300kg/engine/hour, and it may go up to 600-700 with a little thrust on, but the company does prefer to avoid it if possible - too late now though!) Again, if it's slow in the beginning, it can often be that way the whole descent. As you approach any precomputed speed restrictions, the planned vertical path will shallow out to give you around 500fpm rate of descent (again, that's just what it planned - the actual rate may differ) while the aircraft reduces it's speed. If you're already slow on the path, some caution is advised since if you're slowing to 210KIAS for example, the aircraft can end up below the clean manoeuvring speed without attempting to correct it. Just add a little thrust manually if the A/T is still in ARM mode. If its in FMC speed mode, it should be attempting to correct it already - if it's not quick enough, disconnect the A/T and do it yourself, then re-engage the A/T when safe. Of course, you could be flying the profile like a legend, when ATC suddenly decides to say 'Cancel the arrival, route to the centre fix for RWYXX', or (and this happens often) they say 'No speed restrictions' just after you've commenced your descent. This means that the 250 and 210 limits on the STAR, or any terminal speed restrictions now fall away, but you're already in the descent. So, in order to save a minute or two, you delete the speed restrictions (leaving the slower speed limit in is a good idea though if it's close to the airfield), which of course means that your aircraft is now low in relation to the new calculated path. It will pitch up to catch the new path, slow down, and of course then add thrust to keep the planned speed. All good. Remember that to get rid of height, you use speed - you can normally slow down or go down, but often not both at once. Of course, if ATC clears you direct (thus shortening the route you'll be flying), you'll end up high - now you'll need to increase speed, or use the speedbrake, or often both. The absolute worst, is if ATC holds you high while making you keep the speed up, then asks for a ridiculously slow speed after clearing you down. Imminent screwup in the making if you don't recognise the trap you're in (cue Admiral Ackbar - 'It's a trap!') ATC (at least in SA, and almost certainly in 1st world countries) does have a way of measuring energy nowdays, and will often ask, in a not-so-subtle way 'Are you happy with your height?', which means you should already have been looking at your energy state with a very critical eye, especially in an -800. The rule is - if you're hot and high, make a plan sooner rather than later, because the closer you get to the airfield, the less chances you have of getting it sorted out. New F/O's can struggle with this. Don't view the speedbrake as some kind of admission of failure - if you need it, use it. Sure, smooth efficient flying is always better, but go-arounds are less efficient (but still safe), or even worse, unstabilised approaches are downright dangerous. IRL, we often know that ATC will be getting us off the arrival and start giving us vectors to slot us into the flow of traffic. We'll of course then use HDG mode to steer as directed, and since we're no longer flying the planned track, I prefer to revert to VNAV SPEED, or even better (IMHO), LVL CHG, and just set the speed manually on the MCP. I personally like to couple HDG and LVL CHG together, and LNAV and VNAV together - that's my personal approach, it's not a rule. Likewise, when I disconnect the A/P and hand fly, I normally always (except for on the departure) also disconnect the A/T. I kind of know what I'm getting then. HDG/LVL CHG is a kind of 'manual' A/P mode, using the 'what you see is what you get' rule, whereas LNAV/VNAV requires you to know what the FMC is planning to do - something that you endeavour to stay ahead of, but if it gets confusing (the famous 'whats it doing now' comment!) you can simplify it by taking it down a notch.

Ok, now I have to go and work - I'm on ZWO today, not ZWP (there are some system differences), but I'll try to get a photo of the landing attitude (which is the same between the aircraft at least).

Simon, I have to say, in all my past research on the interwebs for real life, step by step accounts of flight deck operations, this thread is the single most detailed and valuable instruction OF ALL TIME!The only comparative detailed account of the tasks of the captain as he goes about his workday is a book by a British Airways captain on the 747-400 called "Flying the Big Jets" by Stanley Stewart. And your explanations have even more of the nerdy minutiae that we home simmers crave, it's like you knew beforehand what kinds of questions we have, and have uncovered so many mysteries and scenarios that we are not in a position to have answered easily. I think you are in for a treat when you purchase the NGX. For the past 4 years I have played off and on with a variety of iterations of the NG from numerous vendors, and finally got serious with full on deep level study of the NG's systems with my purchase of the PMDG printed manuals late last year, put in some practice in the iFLY NG in anticipation of the NGX since middle May of this year, and finally delved deep into what I feel is the real deal with the NGX.Reading your accounts, I feel like I've been flying the NG all my life, and I am receiving confirmation that what I've learned by trial and error or from serious study and practice is correct, and I'm also learning new things and getting answers to some questions i've had collecting in the back of my mind but have never had a chance to ask about. Thank you so much for sharing your time with us, you have made a deep impression on our hobby and we are all the more wiser because of folks like yourself.