Hi, I was fortunate enough the other day to be put in the cockpit due to a totally overbooked SAS 736 operating the engm/lfpg leg. I had plenty of time to observe how the crew worked and it's always facinating to be where it all happens, first time in an NG though. I noted a couple of things they did differently as apposed to my SOP's :) 1. They always set DA even when shooting an ILS, unless it's a CATII minima. I always set DH accordingly when on an ILS approach2. They hardly ever use autobrakes, only when very short field operations or heavy x-wind Two minor observations from a humble sim-pilot having a blast with the extremely friendly crew, who sadly never heard about the NGX or it's competitors in the sim world. What they told me though is that the Ipad is coming soon to the rescue as an EFB, and that Boeing will charge them 55000$ for each unit to mount and configure... Better atleast be an Ipad2! By the way, told them about real pilots and atc's who comes home from work and 'play' with the simulator. The initial response was that those people probaly worked for Norwegian (main competitor of SAS in Norway), they actually both turned around to look at me and said "are you serious" -followed a good long laugh - Ace Ventura's 'Looo-hooo-seeers' came to mind :) At the end of the day i was even compensated with cash for the "inconvenience" it was for me sitting in the cockpit as apposed to sitting in my 10A seat, must say i felt like the winner that day :) Kind regards, Eirik Alimengm

One lucky simmer I guess ;)

Your very lucky Erik, knowing my luck, I would get the jump seat in the lavortory. Interesting they don't use the autobrake most of the time.

So you got paid for getting a ride in the cockpit? Totally unfair

Sounds like you had a nice trip there!

1. They always set DA even when shooting an ILS, unless it's a CATII minima. I always set DH accordingly when on an ILS approach

That's most certainly not their procedure, but rather IFR basics (and so to say 'general' procedure, as it's just wrong to use DH on a CAT I). There has been a rather longish, but probably noteworthy thread about all that just a few days ago, you might be interested to read some of it.

I've been flying jumpseat with SAS 10-15 times during the past two years and IIRC they used autobrake most of the times.Last time was yesterday when we landed with Autobrake 3 with a B738 at ESNZ (2500M runway). You could really feel the deceleration. The day before that with Autobrake 1 at Stockholm-Arlanda. A bit more gently deceleration. (With LN-RRW, the livery provided by PMDG without WL) I guess at the end it's up to the pilot flying.

In fact autobrake 3 brakes almost twice as hard as 1... You can certainly feel it. Interestingly enough I've heard many say a higher brake setting will in fact save brake life more than a lower setting. Not sure why that is, but maybe someone more knowledgable can comment. BTW Quite obviously autobrake usage is also depending on operational considerations - for example here at my home aerodrome we have 4000M runways, yet depending on landing direction many will use autobrake 3 to brake down hard and quick in order to get off the runway. First of all because of a highly congested final, and second of all because of then reduced taxi times, as the gates may be way closer to the touchdown end. In the other landing direction however, I've also witnessed the exact opposite - quit braking seconds after touchdown, no reverse, keep it rolling at high speed. In fact they even added a bit of thrust to keep the speed up. Then aim to leave somewhere at the end of the runway (again the reduced taxi distance argument here). 4000M is rather longish, you bet.