February 12, 201313 yr Guys, This bloke's English aint that great, so a full blown discussion on the finer points of Autopilot engagement will not help him too much just yet.... Hoverlow..Be good if you signed your name to make conversations easier.... Until you get the hang of flying this fantastic girl, I suggest you modify the the simulation settings to make the autopilot switch on easier: FMC>Setup>Options>Simulation>“Realistic Engagement” set to off. The whole point of this thread was that the OP wanted to try realistic AP logic. So advising him to deselect this option is useless. Lots of complex advice was given to him and I tried to simplify that to not applying any flight control inputs while engaging the AP. Then the discussion moved on to an interesting technical debate. As for the OP's English, how do you know what he can understand? His English is very good, far better than my Portuguese.
February 12, 201313 yr Yes Kevin, you maybe right and he can understand English sufficiently. I thought your first reply was great. Keep it as simple as possible until 'Hoverlow' learns more flying skills. Regards Geoff Bryce
February 12, 201313 yr Guys, This bloke's English aint that great, so a full blown discussion on the finer points of Autopilot engagement will not help him too much just yet.... As often happens, we've move from the original question which was answered Only someone with experience of the real aircraft could answer this question for certain, a real world pilot or a maintenance engineer. Quite often a manual will say you shouldn't do something, but there is nothing in the aircraft system which actually prevents you from doing it. I think you have are responding to an old version of that post. I the subscription email doesn't send updates? Sorry for the confusion. Anyway, funnily enough I am an NG pilot, hence my apparent conservative views. Your point about the wording of the FCOM is valid, but I choose not to let it affect the natural interpretation of the limitation. As I pointed out, the FCOM1 limitation only says the "use" is prohibited with AP. Boeing are very careful how they word things. If they said "applying", "changing" or "adjusting" I might agree with your interpretation - as I said, the way I see it, if aileron trim is not zero, it is being 'used'. Coupled with the FCOM2 and FCTM, it is pretty clear it can present problem and is not to be used during normal operations and only for specific roll control cases of non-normal operations - it isn't specific, but probably asymmetric flap/slat, engine separation, etc would cause such difficulties. Circumstantially, I have never used it, I have never seen it used and never heard of it being used. I think we'll have to agree to disagree.
February 12, 201313 yr There's nothing magic about Aileron Trim 0. Boeing is (are) simply trying to avoid the rapid movement of the yoke>flight controls>airplane if you disconnect the A/P. Matt Cee
February 12, 201313 yr Could you point to where you saw the word "prohibited"? All our FCOM states is that there will be no visual and tactile reference in the control wheel should you have aileron trim set while the Autopilot is engaged. There is no difference between setting the trim before or after the autopilot has engaged. Once again, this is in the FCOM of an actual airline, not the one PMDG delivered with the NGX. I may be wrong, but I can't find any reference to it being not allowed. I wonder if they edited the sentence out of our FCOM. Having asked a pilot to test it on a 737NG LevelD sim, the autopilot does engage with aileron trim set, and behaves exactly like Boeing states. PS: Full names required over here. Name available upon request
February 12, 201313 yr Could you point to where you saw the word "prohibited"? 737NG AFM: A U T O P I L O T ( A / P ) / F L I G H T D I R E C T O R ( F / D ) S Y S T E M 1. The Autopilot/Flight director system has been certified for Category II and IIIa Automatic Approach and Landing operations into airports at or below 8,400 ft pressure altitude. 2. Do not engage autopilot on takeoff below 400 feet AGL. 3. For single channel operation during approach, the autopilot shall not remain engaged below 50 feet AGL. 4. Use of aileron trim with the autopilot engaged is prohibited. Matt Cee
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