In the RW I never had any trouble landing aircraft up to the size of the Piper Navajo, often on strips the width of a bicycle track, but the 737 has got me frustrated as I constantly over-run the runway.

 

How should the MCP be set up while coming down the glideslope in Appr mode?

 

And when I want to go manual, as well as turning off CMD A, is there anything else that I should alter?

 

With autothrottle still on I would expect that I would 'hit' the ground at VRef speed. Does the autothrottle automatically disconnect when the the throttles are pulled right back, and the speedbrakes are automatically raised?

 

Or is it when I engage reverse thrust?

 

And does the autobrake really haul the speed of the plane on the ground back sufficiently with the aid of the speedbrakes and reverse thrust.?

 

Sounds like I know it all, doesn't it, but I am doing something wrong in the sequence? If I have missed a page in a tutorial, or the manuals please refer me to it or them.

Kill the at on final, idle around 50 agl (assuming you're at the proper speed) & don't try to grease it like the single-engines. (after 5 months of ngx I had a hard time with rw hard landings in a Tampico). All you want to do is reduce descent to a safe rate, not stall it a few inches above the asphalt like in the smaller planes.

 

Edit: As I understand it, the speed brakes spoil lift more than anything else so you can brake harder without losing traction.

Flying manually with AT on is not recommended by Boeing and some RW pilots in here. I guess you should flare a bit less as it seems that boeings tend to float quite easily if they are flared (!) too much. I think that it's better to land firmly (not crash of course) than float around. I was in a jumping landing just two days ago (it was really windy) and when my wife said that it wasn't a good one I told her that any landing that puts the plane down in one piece is a good one (subject to weather conditions of course)!

 

As for the autobrakes. The system is designed to provide a certain amount of decceleration in each position regardless of what you use to brake. Therefore if braking is assisted with spoilers and/or reverse thrust then the brakes are protected from excessive wear. If you use wheek brakes solely then you'll probably end up with overheated (or damaged?) brakes which is probably not good in the RW.

When you have done the tutorial flight a few times you should become much more comfortable with the normal procedures for landing a 737. Do not be afraid to use the Pause button eveytime you encounter something you are not certain about, or just want more information on.

Take it from a guy that has never flown an inch in the real world, it will come with practice. As has already been said, don't try the big flare or you will just float your way down the runway.

 

I found it was just practice, practice, practice and i didn't really get it until i started learning to perform manual approaches for some reason.

 

One thing i did notice was that the reverse thrust will not initiate until your throttles are firmly back at idle.

Regards,

Ian,

I fly nothing but the NGX (RV-7 very little) let me say. The 737-600 is a LOT easier to land than the 737-800. I turn off AP around 1000-1500ft but I do not turn off AT, There seems a lot of miss info on AT on or off for manual landing, watch some vid's on you tube and do what ever way you want to. For me AT is always on.

If you flying the 737-800 you will have to work hard on landing's the 600 is so much easier because it glides down with a nice noise up and all but lands it's self.

 

The 800 is more noise down and will as other say float forever if you flare wrong and I think that's why others like to turn of AT as I bet they cut the throttle to help get her down.

If you keep on the GP and follow you FD, when you get the call 10 (10ft) do a light flare and I do mean light, get that right and your v-ref is perfect and you grease the landing most times. AT will kick itself off after touch down and make sure your throttle is idle also.

GL and just work on it Ian.

You actually want the throttle to be at idle while flaring. Because of this you shouldn´t have AT on.

I always disconnect AP and AT (together both of them) at approximately 1500 AGL and fly the rest manually. It is easy and fun to handfly the NGX. Autobrakes on 2 or 3, speedbrakes armed.