Hello,I did some reading in de ngx pdfs and search here in the forum and also did some mid air tests but just can not understand what cws should do, or let it do anything for me.As I understand it, it should hold / take over a hand flown pitch and / or roll.So let's say that i fly under I steady streaght cmd autopilot and then use my stick and point that a.c. to a sertain point / in a steady bank the cmd goes off. Cws comes on and also cws p and r come in my pfd.I tried holding a 5 dgs turn steady but can not get the cws r from yellow to green and let the autopilot hold my turn.Could somebody explain the intended work for cws and or give a simple test idea?Thanks,Maikel Rozemeijer.NL

It's something that in a real life you don't use so often... It can be use to prevent unnecessary RAs and level bust. Doing this you prevent a TA becoming RA, prevent manual flight especially in RVSM, and it allows to retains automated flight. So for example if you are climbing to FL 350 and you are..lets say FL 335 and you get a TCAS TA alert with a high rate of climb, you can override the control column ( and it goes in cws ) than reduce rate of descent to 1000/500 ft/min. Doing this the autopilot will re-capture the altitude, and will go in ALT HOLD.Selection of CWS is recommended for operation in severe turulence.Hope this can help.

You have to bank over 5 degrees for CWS-R to hold a bank. Otherwise it thinks you just want a wing-leveler and will return you to 0 bank. FCOM explains it.

In real world, it's also great for flying circle approaches. You can descend to MDA and have the autopilot hold your altitude as you perform the circle. It allows you to keep your eyes outside for judgment and displacement without having to worry too much about busting the MDA.

I found it nice for flying manual traffic patterns also. Just select a pitch mode (atl hold) but no roll mode (no lnav, heading select etc). The press the 'CMD' autopilot button. The pitch will go into CMD and the roll into CWS. Now you can easily fly a nice pattern with the yoke and keep a perfect altitude while setting up for landing, etc. As mentioned above, if you dont roll past 5 deg. the ship will re-level itself.-G

That cheating. :(* Orest

It is! In fact, this whole airplane feels like cheating :D

In very simple terms, CWS gives You the pilot control over Pitch and Roll while still having the autopilot engaged.The FD is your best friend while in CWS mode.Fred.

I read things I have read yesterday in this forum before posting my msg.I feel rather stupid because just can't get any working out of it, but will keep on trying... thanks for your responses above.Maikel Rozemeijer.

My $0.02 in terms of CWS technique.While I am absolutely NOT suggesting that this is acceptable real-world practice, I find CWS to be a very useful mode in the sim.I fly the -600 into/out of the smaller New Zealand fields, and many of them don't have procedures in the FMC. By having the default lateral mode set to 'Wings Level' in the PMDG aircraft options, you can go about your preflight and set up a VNAV profile as usual, but don't select any lateral mode.When you engage the autopilot on climbout, VNAV kicks in and manages the climb/acceleration, and you can then immediately hand fly the aircraft in CWS R either visually onto track or as required by SID. As soon as you are established on track, simply select DIR to the next waypoint, press LNAV and bingo, you're under full autopilot control.Coming back to Maikel's point, there's nothing particularly magic about CWS. With the yoke centered, it holds a steady pitch and/or roll as long as you are within certain limits of attitude to start with. Perhaps if you can explain what you're expecting it to do, but it is not?

Edited February 12, 201214 yr by markadeane

Perhaps if you can explain what you're expecting it to do, but it is not?

As mentioned in my 1st msg here. I think cws gives an autopilot like in md11 that works like point the nose to a point and cws holds the hand made pitch and roll.Yesterday did a test with cmd holding my alt at 6000 ft and make a manual turn under cws. If I make a shalow turn less dan 5 dgs the plain does not level out and keep there. If I make a stronger turn around 20 or 30 dgs the plain does not hold that turn for me.Probaly I have the wrong expactation about cws? Does the amber cws r or p msgs in the pfd goes green btw?Maikel Rozemeijer.

Maikel,It's sort of similar to the MD11 LSAS system in terms of the result it achieves. Page 202 of Operating Manual vol 2 talks more about CWS, specifically when it holds pitch/roll and when it doesn't.To the best of my knowledge, CWS indications on the PFD remain amber.