in the flight notes it says for a fully loaded 747 landing the speed should be about 188 knots. it says less for lighter weight. i read somewhere else maybe in the checklist that a generally good speed is about 140 knots but it doesn't say what the weight should be for that speed. i also can't find any stall speeds. is about 188 knots for a fully fuelled and loaded 747 about right? any info on this would be helpful. thanks, william

William,I begin descent at 100 miles out with about 24% fuel load in each tankfor a 150kt landing, full flaps.Peter Sydney Australia

Search the file library for the name Matt Zagoren and you shall find all that you ask for! ;)Oh, on a sidenote, if you attempt to land a fully loaded and fueled B747 you will be way, way overweight! If we disregard any structural problems you will be coming in pretty fast and need a rather long runway to stop on. 188 knots to me feels like overweight, but check the B747 performance files by Matt.

hi peter, right, i gave myself alittle more room to practice and flew out from katl for about 50 miles then turned back. that gave me time to get setup and play with the throttle and altitude a bit. got my speed down to about 150 knots and it made a big difference. still need some practice. i also noticed i was trying to keep the nose off the ground and it didn't look right at all. then i read where you're not supposed to do that. tried again and it looks much better. more like it should. thanks for the help. william

that's a gold mine there! thanks. unfortunitly the download didn't work and said something about it being corrupt or something. i will definitly try again. those manuals are just what i've been looking for. thanks, william

if you want to do it right, and I mean right, this will take a long time to really read the manuals and figure it out, try the RRP 747-200. It'll blow you away. If you're looking for dancing in the wind kind of stuf with the default 747, that's your call. If you want a real one, give it a go. It'll scare you. HeHe, you can do it...billg

It's mostly[/b] about weight, weather plays a small part, usually by adding a certain number of knots to VREF depending on wind component. This might not be the case with the default 747. Even if you have real manuals like me you certainly could not use them with the default..Best Wishes,[h4]Randy J. Smith[/h4][h3]P M D G's 747-400[/h3][h4]coming to a runway near you[/h4][/font color]Caution! Not a real pilot, but do play one on TV ;-)AMD 64 3200+ | ASUS KV8 DELUXE | GFORCE 5700 ULTRA @535/1000 | Maxtor 6Y080M0 SATA 80 GIG | 512 DDR 400 | Windows Xp Pro | Windows Xp Pro 64 |

hi bill, yea, i try to do everything by the book but would like to get the default aircraft down before i start moving up although i wouldn't mind having a look at those manuals. thanks, william

randy, yea, i'm learning about the weight thing and it does play a big part. where did you get those manuals? i always enjoy reading that sort of stuff. william

Hi, please send me a private message with your your mail address - I can send some landing tables.http://library.avsim.net/index.php?CatID=fs2kmisc Here you

Hi, please send me a private message with your your mail address - I can send some landing tables.http://library.avsim.net/index.php?CatID=fs2kmisc Here you

that looks like a good manual. i'll download it in a little bit and thanks. william

Okay? I'll bite on this one"try the RRP 747-200" I'm at a loss as to who RRP stands for.It sounds interesting.JimC.

www.panelshop.comJust gone done flying the beautiful 742F northwest cargo from them.Anyway if you don't want to pay that much for an airplane I suggest searching around for default 747 flight dynamics upgrades. I downloaded one from the library here a while ago, can't seem to find it now though.

Thought you might find this short discussion from the Hanger site interesting to this thread.----------------------------------------Real world air question or should I say observation!Just arrived back from Orlando on Virgin 747 (Pretty Woman) to Gatwick and as I am into Fs stuff the skymap is my constant companion through the 7.5 hour flight. Sad eh? Still it beat the movies on offer. I cannot watch Shrek or Cat in the Hat!How accurate are these skymaps?Reason I ask is that as we came over Southampton we were a comfortable 18K and bowling along at around 430 ground speed. We landed east/west runway and I think we tutned over Biggen. However the skymap showed us dropping to 8K but ground speed was at 410!Now I did look out window over wing and saw flaps air brakes and I am sure umberellas and parachutes being deployed(lol) all at one time to slow 747 down.Question is, are certain aircraft allowed to break 250mph limit, or was this 747 being allowed a very quick approach turn to be slotted into pattern. Or, is Skymap just a very rough approximation?I am sure I heard a 'Whheeeee' from up front somehwere!(g)ronald----------------------------------------Don't know how accurate these skymaps are, my airline doesn't have any. I think these systems use GPS data, so they must be fairly accurate...I can tell you that on most day's we fly over 250 knots below 10K, mostly early morning or late night arrivals. When ATC tells you; "no speed restrictions" you can forget the 250 limit, you can also request high speed. The only problem is slowing down.... Modern jets are a b*tch to slow down especially if you want to descend as well, I love speed brakes! Disclaimer: I am a Airbus driver, not a 747 driver (yet.... )Mazzl,CD---------------------------------Mazzi,Thank you for the informed reply.As a FS enthuiast for too many years I read things like the Skymap with great interest. Indeed, as we were zooming along I was thinking that this was going to be a 'fun' approach!!Yeah 430 to 160? landing speed as you turn and drop from 8K at say 15 miles out?Are they just allowing ILS to take control?----------------------------Wheeee.......