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icemarkom

Landings (unautomated)

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Do more hand flying. Fly to the top and back down by hand. You will get used to haw she responds at all speeds.

 

Thanks,

Ron

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Make sure the spd brakes are armed or even deploy them manually by pulling the handle up and all the way back.  The throttles need to be at idle by or before touch down.  At about the 20 ft call out start bringing the throttles toward idle.  Dont flare too much. These babies need land flat to avoid striking the tail.  Good luck

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and dont do what i did, my first landing was a manual one and i forgot the landing gear :blush:

 

I dont even know how i forgot the landing gear as im use to flying bigger aircraft like the 767, 757 A32x and the 732, shame as it was a really nice flight :)


-Paul-

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Now you can really confuse yourself, go land some taildraggers :lol:

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You have already found that the 737 is slippery, that jet engines are slow to react, and that trimming on final really doesn't work that well. But the fact that you are landing from the pattern means you are probably practising one of the required arts, even if you are not aware you are doing it; using pitch to control speed. You still use the throttles for longer term adjustments, but a little back pressure on the stick will bleed 10 knots off faster and with more control then anything else you can do, and because it is more immediate, you are far less likely to over compensate. This lets you adjust the throttles and have time for their effect to stabalise. 

 

To use the HUD properly, just remember that it is showing you your "velocity vector". If you change nothing, that is where you will contact the ground. 

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Quite right about the pitch. That's one of the first things I remember from my first contact with the flight sim (ages ago). I refused to touch any jet powered planes until only two weeks ago, but I succumbed to the lure of flying a jetliner :-) I'm loving how much I learn every time I fly this beautiful NGX creation.

 

Also, my landings have considerably improved in the meantime. I've done about 50 (and I fly on VATSIM these days almost exclusively, so there's an added challenge of other humans being involved). I usually turn off all AP functions at around the outer marker and take it from there.

 

I was doing a lot of auto-landings lately as well, but only for the reason that this is the first virtual plane I own that implements this feature and it was really fascinating learning the procedure to do it.

 

A wonderful hobby, indeed.

 

------------------------------8<------------------------------

 

That HUD/HGS thingymagic is still a mystery though. I never use it and find it utterly distracting at all stages of flight. What am I missing? :-)

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That HUD/HGS thingymagic is still a mystery though. I never use it and find it utterly distracting at all stages of flight. What am I missing? :-)

I think you're missing how much easier the HUD can make your landings since you're able to observe the instruments (speed, altitude...) and the runway at the same time. Also, as said above, it tells you where you are going to touch the runway with your current pitch, etc. :)


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I'm sure I'm missing it, but I find it more reassuring to scan all the instruments for some reason.

 

It's the practice I'm sure

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Now you can really confuse yourself, go land some taildraggers :lol:

Funnily enough, landing a 737 is similar to a tailwheel three point landing, insofar as one simply smoothly sets the landing pitch attitude whilst simultaneously smoothing reducing thrust, holds that attitude and effectively waits for touchdown.

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Don't forget that airliners, and particularly the big jets, are flown 'by the numbers' (boring but true).

 

Expected landing weight, temperature and pressure all play a part and thats where the FMC inputs come into their own.

 

The speed tape and flap indicators on the PFD are a good indicator...select your speed and practice maintaining it until the flare using your power levers and pitch (with yoke). As mentioned before, at 20-30ft close levers and gently pull back...careful not to pitch up!

 

regards, Russ


Russell Shaw

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Marko,

 

Just out of interest, at what weight are you practicing your landings?  If you are too heavy that can make landing difficult as it affects so many factors.  Don't just go blasting off with full tanks as that will most likely put you above Max Landing Weight and be making your life harder.  If you want a nice weight for circuits, use about 50% in each wing tank only.

 

You mentioned your were having trouble slowing down too...

 

Don't think you mentioned how long a final you are making but assuming about 8-10nm you should be flap 5 and about 180-190kts when you turn toward the runway.  Just before you start down hill take flap 15, gear down,arm speedbrakes and set speed about 160.  Once you get down to 160kts, bring her back to Vref+5kts (speed over the fence) and take flap 30 or 40 (depending on config and runway length etc).  At 60T and flap 30 your "speed over the fence" should be about 142-147 kts.  In this config, 60% N1 and 700ft/min vert speed will stand you in good stead.

 

The important thing I want to stress is that you need to be configured.  Most airlines will have a stable call at either 500ft or 1000ft where they must be on speed, on slope, landing flap selected and stable.  At this point they are for lack of a better term "ready to land".

 

If you follow these simple rules you will have less of your concentration on flipping switches during the final approach segment and more time to fly the plane.

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As I mentioned, the HUD is showing your "velocity vector", or where you will contact if nothing changes.

To land with the HUD:

1) put the crosshairs on the end of the runway  - and keep them there.

2) adjust your speed as needed  - and change the pitch to keep the cross hairs on the end of the runway.

3) adjust your pitch as needed - and change the speed to keep the cross hairs on the end of the runway.

4) repeat 2 & 3 until you touch down.

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This was actually a pretty good advice. I just had a landing in KBUR on its ~5000 runway and I decided to use HUD and follow your advice. It was actually rather easy using it in visual mode.

 

More practice needed. Off to do some patterns ;-)

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