I find it very hard to manually conrol the speed and hit all the flap setting correctly on the 737. It seems (per the chart in the manual) you only have 10 kts between lowering the flaps from 5 deg to 15 deg, then another 10 kts to 25 deg and vRef 30 and Vref 40 (flaps 30 and 40) are soooo close.And say Vref is 137kts the chart says Flaps 15 at Vref 40 + 20. Atsay 160 KTS and flaps still at 10 deg, I am at 7.5 degrees nose up and I hear the drinks spilling in first class.I guess my question is: Is really realistic to hand fly an approach and manullay controlling the speed - or is this too much of a feat for a mere mortal. Also the chart in the manuals gives these as manuvering speeds - is this the corrrect landing flap settings?1 Vref 40 + 505 Vref 40 + 3010 Vref 40 + 30 (same as 5??)15 Vref 40 + 2025 Vref 40+ 1030 Vref 30 (144kts in my latest case)40 Vref 40 (137kts "")That's a lot of flap changes in a small window.

I have also wondered about the many flap settings in the NG compared with 4 in the A320, I assume this gives more discretion to the pilot for flap settings to use?Thanks, Bruce.

10 different setting within 70 kts

I find it very hard to manually conrol the speed and hit all the flap setting correctly on the 737. It seems (per the chart in the manual) you only have 10 kts between lowering the flaps from 5 deg to 15 deg, then another 10 kts to 25 deg and vRef 30 and Vref 40 (flaps 30 and 40) are soooo close.And say Vref is 137kts the chart says Flaps 15 at Vref 40 + 20. Atsay 160 KTS and flaps still at 10 deg, I am at 7.5 degrees nose up and I hear the drinks spilling in first class.I guess my question is: Is really realistic to hand fly an approach and manullay controlling the speed - or is this too much of a feat for a mere mortal. Also the chart in the manuals gives these as manuvering speeds - is this the corrrect landing flap settings?1 Vref 40 + 505 Vref 40 + 3010 Vref 40 + 30 (same as 5??)15 Vref 40 + 2025 Vref 40+ 1030 Vref 30 (144kts in my latest case)40 Vref 40 (137kts "")That's a lot of flap changes in a small window.

Often on approach you use flaps 1,5, 15, and 30. Like you said, flaps 10 has the same limit as flaps 5 so flaps 10 is often skipped entirely. If, however you were having a hard time decelerating after selecting flaps 5 you could add some more drag (by adding flaps to). Most landings are with flaps 30, so there's usually only 4 or 5 flaps setting selected on approach. mitch bowman

1,2 and 5 all have a max limit of 250kias. I drop flaps 5 from the start at around 220 kias. Then i base everything the max speed limits. At 170 ill go flaps 15 and gear down. Then as long as im below the max structural limit for my final flap settings ill drop them whenever i feel like it. The time i drop the gear and flaps 15 all depends om what approach i am flying and how atc vectors me.

I drop flaps 5 from the start at around 220 kias. Then i base everything the max speed limits. At 170 ill go flaps 15 and gear down. Then as long as im below the max structural limit for my final flap settings ill drop them whenever i feel like it. The time i drop the gear and flaps 15 all depends om what approach i am flying and how atc vectors me.

Why are you doing this? Usually you'd slow down to minimum flap maneuvering speeds on approach during flap extension. This is an NG, no classic. On the classic you'd go like clean 210, flap 1 190, flap 5 170 and so forth. But here we have advanced tech, so why not use it. Sure, there are placard limits that are way higher. But it's not usual procedure to base things on max speed limits. I know, in the sim you'd probably drop flaps just to hit V_FE for the next setting, but it's no good practice at all.

I simply use SPEED mode on the MCP and dial it in, saves a lot of work.