Ive been flying this beauty and grace all week and have been really enjoying it. But one thing stands out above all and I dont think it can be stressed enough. Before I say anything further, there is simmers of all levels, and it is you alone and only you to decide what level and skills you want to incorporate. 

 

This aircraft is riddled with automation dependency. Im amazed at the extremely reduced workload to the pilot. Thats not necessarily a bad thing, as this makes more time for things like situational awareness. But seriously, this aircraft all but flies on its own. This next principle really applies to any aircraft, but since all are caught up in the 777 this past week and the weeks and months to follow, try a few different strategies to keep your skills up and make it challenging and fun. Kyle and others have touched on this a few times. 

 

Dont depend on VNAV, just leave it off at times. In fact I think real world pilots often take it off even if they dont have too just to keep up the skills and avoid complacency. Then if they are just not feeling entirely up to it they will leave it on depending on the situation. The challenge is to manage your descent on your own. Speed and pitch all the while meeting the speed restrictions in a STAR. You can do this on a departure, but ATC likely just wants to get you the heck out of their airspace as quick and safely as possible.   VNAV is not always perfect no matter what the perfection of the programming. Use flt level change, but again this doesnt work either, because if you reduce the speed then the aircraft will immediately shallow its descent. You can have even more control of it all with Vertical Speed dial. Experiment with this and learn from it. Managing all this will keep you on your toes more and make things alot more interesting. 777 has a whole lot of momentum and inertia, and self managing adds to the experience. 

 

Same kinda thing applies to LNAV and just using heading select along with fixes and ground based navaids for your position. You can still follow the FD as a guide of course. 

Once you get used to all the managing aspect, hit the AP off earlier and hand fly this big ship. 

 

Of course as mentioned, it is all up to you. And these are only my opinion and I could be stating it wrong about all this. Im no RW pilot, not an expert,  just simming experience over the many years and observations from watching professional videos, and reading. None of these suggestions are new, its just all these modern aircraft tend to drive automation dependency too much in my opinion and we might tend to get "lazy". Ive been guilty of it. I learned that alot using the MD11.

The big points are mentioned in the intro doc already, but emphasizing them here isn't a bad thing.

 

I've got trapped a couple of times already by the T7 speeding up during VNAV descent, a very shallow convergence to the new FL during FLCH and some more stuff.

 

I do second you: This heavily automated aircraft needs to be controlled just as heavily ...

 

 

The big points are mentioned in the intro doc already

 

Absolutly and it was very well done, but no one seems to read the manuals much, thus all the problem question threads. 

I'm hoping the 2nd tutorial will help enormously with all that stuff;-)

Whilst I agree the pilot needs a double digit IQ, the automation is there for a reason.  Learn to use it, learn its shortcomings, but above all remember to AVIATE, NAVIGATE, COMMUNICATE.  There is no mechanical substitute for human intelligence.  Unfortunately, we sometimes we are liberal with our self-assesments.